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ACCOUNT 



OF THS 



STATE OF FRANCE, 

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ACCOUNT 

OF THE 

STATE OF FRANCE, 

AND ITS 

GOVERNMENT, 

DURING 

THE LAST THREE YEARS j 

PARTICULARLY 

AS IT HAS RELATION TO THE BELGIC 
PROVINCES, 

AND THE 

TREATMENT OF THE ENGLISH, 



By ISRAEL WORSLEY, 

DETAINED AS A HOSTAGE- 



PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON 
ST, PAUL'S CHURCHYARD.. 

— ■ ■ ■ ' .* 

1S0G, 



£ti 



JOYCE GOLD, PklNTEfi, SHOE-LAttfi, 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I. 



PAGE 



ACCOUNT of the author— Englishmen ar- 
rested — Reasons assigned for their arrest — 
Ambiguity of the decree — Different ways of 
executing it^-Account of the author conti- 
nued 

CHAPTER II. 

Author's arrival in the department of Je- 
mappes, and subsequent treatment — 
Daughter of Jean de Brie — Author's con- 
finement in the prison of Mons 5 and march 
to Verdun — General Rey — Amiable 
characters of General Wirion and Major 
Courcelles — Account of Verdun, and 

treatment of the English th ere .... 15 

b 



U CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

PAGE 

The author's return to Mons, and exertions 
to maintain his family — Base conduct of 

Mr. C r.— C d's escape, and the 

consequent treatment of his countrymen 
— Permission obtained to remove to 
Amiens, and departure for Holland — 
Arrest on the frontiers, and escape from 
his guards — Arrival in Holland . „ 27 

CHAPTER IV. 

Imminent risk of being arrested again — 
Kindness of the Dutch people — Journey 
through Holland, and arrival at Embden 
— ^Reflections on emigration — Sources of 
the information contained in the follow- 
ing pages 46 

CHAPTER V. 

Men of low birth raised to eminence — Buo- 
naparte's animosity to the English — 
Proofs he gave of it— Sufferings of the 
English in consequence — Of Dr. M.— 
Of Mr. S. — Account of the depots — • 
Number of the prisoners — Government 
allowance to them**,. **»* *»*, »**»»-« 56 



CONTENTS. Ill 

CHAPTER VL 

PAGE 

Ancient Walloons — Diiferent changes of 
the government of their country-— Re- 
sources — Mines — Quarries — Houses — 
Churches and convents — Produce of the 
land — Climate- — English merchandise in 
high estimation — Coals 66 

CHAPTER VII. 

Revolt of the people at the instigation of 
the priests — Conduct of. Joseph II — Dis- 
mantling of the towns, and sale of con- 
vents — Entire dismantling of the towns 
by Napoleon — Rattle of Jemappes 76 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Account of the people — Sale of church pro- 
perty—Satisfaction of the people upon 
it — State of the country under the em- 
peror—The towns large and rich — The 
country poor — Farmers' labourers 85 

CHAPTER IX. 

Changes brought on by the French revolu- 
tion — The characters that figured in it — 
Sufferings of the public creditors -Mi- 



IV CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

serable state of the army — Patriotism of 
the soldiers — Renovation and successes 
under Buonaparte— A stop put to revo- 
lutionary measures 95 

CHAPTER X. 

Landed property passed into other hands — 
Destruction of the woods and other trees 
— Pillage of the public property — Far- 
mers become proprietors of land, and 
enrich themselves — Registry of estates 
and duties on thejn — Towns impoverish- 
ed — Appearance of the country changed 
— Beggars — Charity given after confes- 
sion — Increased price of provisions 103 

CHAPTER XI. 

Taxes: — On wine, spirits, and beer; — on 
property, cards, stamps, mortgages;-— 
on land, windows, and doors; — on ma- 
nufactured and printed goods ; — on post- 
ing — Liberty of speech — Account of 
Buonaparte's privy council — His irrita- 
bility — Liberty of the press — Newspa- 
pers — Sudden disappearance of some men 
in Paris .*. 114 



CONTENTS. ▼ 

CHAPTER XII. 

PAt^E 

Particular account of the conscription — Re- 
gistry of births and deaths 125 

CHAPTER XIII. 

General impression in France respecting 
Buonaparte — His vis/fc to the depart- 
ments, particularly t* that of Jemappes 
— His inconsistency with respect to ma- 
nufactures — Accounts of manufactures 134 

CHAPTER XIV. 

English manufactured goods in great esteem 
— Smuggling — Custom-house officers — 
Treaty of commerce 146 

CHAPTER XV. 

Legion of honour — Subordination of the 
army — Account of the leapers — Buona- 
parte's tactics — Garrison towns — Bar- 
racks — Quartering in private houses— 
Punisnments— Galley prisoners — Guil- 
lotine .,...,„.. 154 



Tl CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

PAGE 

State of religion in the low countries — The 
Protestant — Paiticular account of those 
in the department of Jemappes — Regu- 
lation of the Catholic church — Tythes — 
Hierarchy of Fraice — Appearance of 
the clergy — Revival of ancient splendour 
— Altars in the streets 166 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Faith of the Catholics — The Pope's visit to 
Paris — Processions — St. George and the 
Dragon — Advantage arising from con- 
fession—Bishops — Bishop of To u may 187 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Atheism or deism of France — Blind belief 
of the world at large — Tendency of all 
parties to the belief in a God — Buona* 
parte's prudence in re-establishing the 
ancient worship — Family altars — Wor- 
ship of images — Bible — Prayers in La- 
tin—Convents — Charitable institution 195 



CONTENTS. Vii 

CHAPTER XIX. 

PAGE 

State of education— Schools, primary and 
secondary — Lyceums — Buonaparte's 
school at Fontainbleau — The Pritanee 
-—Objects of Study — Old colleges — Uni- 
versity of Louvain 217 

CHAPTER XX. 

Amusements of the low countries — Archery 
— The game of the ball — Dancing — 
Village festivals — Observance of Sunday 
— Intoxication — Religious feasts - 226 

CHAPTER XXI. 

French economy — Vegetable stews and 
soups — National prejudices — National 
character of the English — Feeding of 
Cattle— Economy of fuel ... . 236 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Management in farm-houses — Large gar- 
dens — Apoplexies and sudden deaths rare 
—Wolves, foxes — Beer, wines, brandy 
—Weights and measures — Money .... 245 



Till CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

PAGE 

Account of the Gendarmerie — Their beha- 
viour to the English prisoners — Police — 
Original intention and actual power of 
that body — Their discipline - 256 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Eehaufeursj or Warmers 264 



ACCOUNT 



Of THE 



STATE OF FRANCE, 
&• fa. 

CHAPTER I. 

Account of the Author — Englishmen arrested 
— Reasons assigned for their Arrest — Am- 
biguity of the Decree — Different Ways of 
executing it — Account of the Author con- 
tinued. 

1 HE writer of the following pages 
lias lately quitted France, where he 
had established a school immediately 
after the revolution. lie had found 
it necessary, however, to return to 
England, when the perpetual changes 
of the French government, and the 
severe measures of its rulers, threat- 

B 



2 ACCOUNT OF THE 

ened the whole republic with disso- 
lution. The peace of Amiens fur- 
nished an opportunity of resuming 
his interesting employment, in which 
he had been flattered by the prospect 
of the most brilliant success, and to 
which he was again called by the 
wishes of his former friends and sup- 
porters. Scarcely, however, had he 
resumed his station, when the de- 
cree of Buonaparte respecting the ar- 
rest of the English was promulgated, 
and he, with others, became prisoners 
of the state. As the government 
had held out every encouragement to 
houses of education, and in many 
cases, where the respectability of the 
teachers justified it, had given out of 
the national domains, premises suit- 
able to their purpose, free of rent, it 
was presumed that an establishment 
like his would have been rather the 
object of their care than of their cen- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 3 

sure, and the officer of police scru- 
pled not to declare, immediately upon 
his apprehension, that he could by no 
means consider him as intended by 
government to be included among the 
arrested English. The decree was 
executed by the military, which ex- 
cited the jealousy of the civil power, 
and, in other cases, as well as in 
this, the rising influence of the army 
created much disorder and many em- 
barrassments in executing the orders 
of government. But as a more com- 
plete idea of these embarrassments 
will be formed by an enumeration of 
them, and as the reader will become 
better acquainted with the treatment 
of the English in general, from the 
manner in which individuals were 
used, it may be advisable to state 
particularly the scenes through which 
the author of the ensuing work was 
rpade to pass from this beginning of 
B 2 



4 ACCOUNT OF THE 

his sorrows to the moment when he 
made his escape. 

The arrest of the English began di- 
rectly after the capture of the French 
merchant ships by order of the Eng- 
lish ministry, and without any decla- 
ration of war. The only reprisal which 
the grand consul had in his power to 
make, was the seizure of the persons 
of the British subjects who were then 
on the French territory. Without 
stopping to inquire into the legiti- 
macy or expediency of the measure, 
it may be observed, that no law of 
nations will justify it, no precedent 
of a civilized nation will warrant it, 
nor has it found any advocates even 
amongst the subjects of the emperor. 
They stigmatize without scruple his 
conduct as unwise, and condemn it 
as inhuman. He was undoubtedly 
urged to it by a spirit of revenge 
against a power which had acted, as. 



STATE OF FRANCE. 5 

he thought, unfairly by his subjects, 
and reeked that revenge upon a set 
of men who, he presumed, were 
dear to their country, and perhaps 
thought, that should the misunder- 
standing be of a short duration, he 
could exchange one unlawful sei- 
zure for another. Such appears to 
have been the first pretence for 
their arrest ; afterwards another and 
very different reason was assigned 
for this measure. When the descent 
upon England was seriously intended, 
and it was supposed that the fury of 
the English would overcome every 
other principle, and that all their 
prisoners would be sacrificed to their 
indignation, Buonaparte was said to 
retain the hostages as a security for 
the lives of his own people, and to 
have determined upon making the 
former suffer whatever evils might 
fall to the lot of the latter. In 



O ACCOUNT OF THE 

this apprehension, the English in 
France were, for a considerable time, 
rendered extremely unhappy; for dear 
as their own lives were to themselves 
and families, they could not but hope 
that every Frenchman who landed in 
their country might find a grave there, 
rather than be the means of introduc- 
ing the confusion and misery that had 
already followed every where in their 
train. 

The order for arresting the English, 
when issued, was not at all understood. 
It must have been expressed in an am- 
biguous way, or it could not have been 
executed so variously by the different 
constituted authorities. In some places,, 
all the English indiscriminately were 
arrested ; in some, all that had entered 
the country since the peace of Amiens ; 
and in others, only those who were 
without a fixed habitation, or osten- 
sible means of support by their for- 



STATE OF FRANCE. . 7 

tune or industry. In some towns 
the men only were arrested; in 
others, entire families were obliged 
to go away to the depot. The au- 
thor was at this time at Dunkirk, 
where he had gone in order to es- 
tablish his seminary of learning, a 
second time, since the peace of Ami- 
ens; but no sooner had he become 
the prisoner of the military power, 
than the police officer interfered, and 
insisted upon his being set at liberty, 
because he had resided so long at Dun- 
kirk before, and was so well known 
both personally and by the useful es- 
tablishment which he had formed. Af- 
ter this the alarm of the English 
increased every day, and new fears 
were added to those of the day be- 
fore. At first a written engagement 
was given by every individual, that 
he would not go beyond the walls 
of the town without the express per- 



8 ACCOUNT OF THE 

mission of the commandant ; but after- 
wards they began to send them away to 
Valenciennes. 

The author, upon this, was strongly 
advised by his friends to quit the coast, 
before measures more severe were en- 
forced, and to retire into the interior, 
where the importance of his school 
to the place in which he should live 
might secure every exertion of the 
magistrates for his protection; for it 
was presumed, that the orders for the 
port-towns would be more severe than 
those of the towns within land. He 
chose, therefore, Ardres, a small for- 
titled town, at nearly an equal distance 
from Dunkirk, Calais, Boulogne, and 
St. Omar's, peculiarly well situated for 
a school, on a fine healthy spot, and 
where provisions were very cheap. 

He hired a large building, a ci -decant 
abbaye, for the small sum of twelve 
pounds per annum. In the middle of 



STATE OF FRANCE. 9 

June, 1803, he removed thither, and 
had the pleasure to see his numbers 
increase, notwithstanding the unfa- 
vourableness of the times and the im- 
mense losses sustained in the neigh- 
bouring ports by all the principal mer- 
chants. Five weeks after, however, he 
received an order from the gendarmes 
to quit the place, and repair to Valen- 
ciennes. This injunction was not ac- 
companied by an arrest, nor was the 
day mentioned when he was to set out 
on his journey. 

His boarders went home , and while 
preparations were making for his de- 
parture, a friend happening to be at 
Calais, met with a letter, which the 
grand juge (chief justice) had just 
addressed to the sub-prefet : in this 
he reprobated, in strong terms, the 
measures that had been taken in that 
town, and at Boulogne, against the 
English settlers j and declared autho- 



10 ACCOUNT OF THE 

ritatively, that it never was the inten- 
tion of the government to unsettle, 
or give any disturbance to, those who 
conducted manufactories, or had form- 
ed useful establishments in the country. 
The author was judged to be among 
the latter of these, and himself received 
the sanction of the magistrates to re- 
main where he was, with the assur- 
ance, that he had now nothing to 
fear. 

His boarders came back ; some new 
ones were added ; and once more the 
wheel was set to work : bat it was not 
to go long ; for at the end of three 
weeks, an absolute order came down, 
that he should leave Ardres in twenty- 
four hours for Valenciennes. This de- 
cree being more positive than the other, 
and addressed to him by name, the 
gendarmes insisted on the execution 
of it. 

Mrs. Worsley w r as but imperfectly 



STATE OF FRANCE. 11 

recovered from a long and alarming 
illness, and actually in danger of an- 
other ; herself ignorant of the language, 
with no servant that could speak it, 
and her children too young to render 
her any assistance ; to which it must 
be added, that she was of a nervous 
habit, and her family fast increasing. 
With his affairs in this state, the author 
was to march away without any pre- 
paration, and to leave his school as 
it was ; nor did the magistrates dare to 
soften, even by a short respite, the ri- 
gour of the sentence. 

He took proper documents from the 
mayor and the physician, and went off 
the same evening for Arras, where the 
prefet resided, the only person whose 
authority could then render him any 
service. He asked the delay of a fort- 
night, that he might put his affairs 
into a proper train, and conduct his 



12 ACCOUNT OF THE 

family in some comfort to the place 
of their destined imprisonment. The 
prefet granted it without any hesita- 
tion, and expressed his surprise that 
the mayor had suffered him to come so 
far, in order to obtain what the eternal 
laws of humanity enjoined, " which," 
he observed, "had always existed, and 
would always exist, whatever the go- 
vernors of any country might ordain. " 
He regretted the necessity he was un- 
der of refusing to authorize his stay 
in the department, for he had received 
from the consul a positive injunction 
not to suffer an Englishman to remain 
there. 

The author returned to Ardres, sent 
home his boarders a second time, and 
directed the public sale of his effects. 
A week after a letter came from the 
gendarmerie, purporting that he was 
not to be sent away. But after so 



STATE OF FRANCE. 13 

many disappointments, he did not 
choose to expose himself to additional 
evils; having already experienced, that 
as confidence could not be placed in 
the stability of his establishment, pa- 
rents were not willing to put their 
children under his care. A number 
of persons were then waiting to see 
the issue of this embarrassed affair; 
and he was well assured, by respect- 
able friends, who interested themselves 
greatly in his success, because they con- 
ceived the welfare of the town allied to 
it, that a considerable number of young 
persons waited only the assurance of 
his security, in order to enter his house. 
lie had the pleasure of knowing that 
he bad obtained the confidence of the 
neighbourhood, and only wanted stabi- 
lity to insure success. He took the 
advantage, however, of this occurrence 
in his favour to procure a passport for 



14 ACCOUNT OF THE 

the department of Jemappes, in which 
a friend resided, from whose influence 
he hoped to derive some valuable 
assistance in providing for a numerous 
family. 



STATE OF FRANCE. 15 



CHAPTER II. 

Author's Arrival in the Department of Jemap- 
pcS) and subsequent Treatment — Daughter of 
Jean de Brie — Author's Confinement in the 
Vrison of Mons, and March to Verdun — Ge- 
neral Rey — Amiable Characters of General 
Wirion and Major Courcelles — Account of 
Verdun^ and Treatment of the English there. 

ABOUT the end of September, the 
author with his family arrived at 
Moris, which is situated between Va- 
lenciennes and Brussels. It is a large 
well-built town, and was formerly rich. 
Here he remained three months, un- 
disturbed, the number of his children 
was increased, and their mother be* 
ginning to recover her strength, when, 
without the smallest previous intima- 
tion, or any reason being assigned for 
it, he was arrested, and detained in the 
custody of a gendarme. 



16 ACCOUNT OF THE 

In a few days some friends were ad-< 
mitted as sureties for his appearance, 
and he got rid of his soldier, who had 
guarded him by night and by day, 
and whom he was required to feed and 
pay handsomely for his time. A 
month elapsed without any news from 
the Minister. At the end of Decem- 
ber an order came down, that he should 
be conveyed away to Verdun, which 
had then become the receptacle of 
those Englishmen who had the means 
of supporting themselves without the 
assistance of the government. 

During the last months he had be- 
come acquainted with an excellent 
woman, a young widow of two and 
twenty, the daughter of the well known 
Jean de Brie, whose life was almost 
miraculously saved, when the other 
deputies to the congress of Radstadt 
were murdered by the Austrian troops. 
The news of his arrest became the 



STATE OF FRANCE. 17 

common subject of conversation. This 
lady first heard of it at the theatre in 
the evening, and endued with too much 
sensibility to witness a common cala- 
mity unmoved, one so uncommon and 
so unmerited as this, excited her indig- 
nation and her pity to so high a degree, 
that she was taken seriously ill in her 
box, and did not for some time over- 
come the shock. She was one of the 
richest and most esteemed persons in 
the town, and without delay set every 
engine to work for his release. The 
kindness of this good woman, the 
constant sisterly attention she paid his 
wife while he was in captivity, and 
after his return, and the delicate man- 
ner in which she made several useful 
presents to the family, will ever remain 
deeply engraven on their memories. 

The author had been conducted to 
the prison of the town, where he re- 
mained closely confined for three days. 
c 



18 ACCOUNT OF THE 

He had a miserable bed without fur- 
niture to lie upon, in a room about 
six feet square, the window of which 
still bore marks of the violence of 
mischievous boys ; and for this indul- 
gence he paid sufficiently dear. 

On the last day of the year, when 
the ground was drenched by succes- 
sive rains, the roads wretchedly bad, 
and the days at the shortest, he was 
marched away, accompanied by a gen- 
darme, to the province of the ancient 
Champaigne. The most trying scene 
in which he was called to share was in 
the prison of Mons. Not allowed to 
quit it for a moment, to make up a 
little package for his journey, and bid 
his family adieu, he was visited by a 
part of it the evening before his de- 
parture, in the painful uncertainty of 
not seeing them again as long as the 
war should last, or of their being obliged 
to make a long, expensive, and embar- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 1$ 

rassing journey after him to Verdun, 
without his assistance and support. 
On this occasion, for the first time 
in his life, he found himself com- 
pletely unmanned ; but the recol- 
lection of the virtue and force of for* 
titude soon restored him to himself. 
His friends also spoke with a confi- 
dence, on which he feared to rely, 
of his speedy return. 

" The vine-covered hills and gay 
regions of France" appeared to him 
sad and joyless. In five days, by sharp 
marches, and at the expense of not 
only the moisture of his joints, but 
also of the skin of his feet, and, he 
may also add, of the hair of his head, 
which afterwards fell thick around 
him, he arrived at his destined post. 
During this time friends had been busy 
to obtain his release. The prefet of 
the department of Jemappes had sup- 
ported, with all his influence, an ad- 
c 2 



20 ACCOUNT OF THE 

dress he had sent up to the minister, 
in which he was represented as a manu- 
facturer of considerable utility to the 
town of Mons, having introduced a 
new species of industry, employed a 
considerable number of hands, and be- 
come essentially serviceable to the poor. 
This was backed by a gentleman who 
held a distinguished rank in the office 
of the minister of the interior, who had 
been educated in the family of Jean de 
Brie, and who followed up the business 
so well, that in a week after the arrest, 
an order was issued from the bureau of 
the formidable Berthier for his dis- 
charge. But he was not so soon to 
be in the bosom of his family, 

The execution of the order of arrest, 
and the subsequent measures, seem to 
have been much more prompt than the 
minister himself had expected ; for the 
counter-order was dispatched to Mons, 
addressed to the general of division, 



STATE OF FRANCE. 21 

on the presumption that the author was 
still there. This man, of mean birth and 
brutal character, forms a perfect con- 
trast to the worthy female character 
of whom we have just spoken with 
delight. The general behaviour of the 
one to all who came near him dis- 
played the gall of bitterness that was 
incorporated in his frame ; none could 
seek relief from the other, or even know 
her, without acknowledging that the 
milk of human kindness seemed to give 
vigour to all her actions. General Rey 
had not delayed a moment to distress 
an innocent family, nor would he 
moderate that distress in the smallest 
degree, though wholly in his power, 
and strongly urged to do so by many 
respectable persons. And having done 
thus much, he was equally unsolicitous 
to remedy the mistake which pro- 
longed the evil, although he could not 
have failed to have perceived it. The 



22 ACCOUNT OF THE 

consequence was, that three months 
had elapsed at his return to Mons, and 
then he obtained his release only by the 
exertions of the gentleman in the office 
of the minister, who, upon applica- 
tion, found out the error, and had it 
rectified. During this period he felt 
strongly what " the sickness of the 
heart is which arises from hope de- 
ferred," not imagining the cause of the 
delay, and fearing that he had been 
deceived. 

The author ought not to omit in 
this place the encomiums due to the 
characters of general Wirion and major 
Courcelles; the one at the head of the 
gendarmerie stationed at Verdun, and 
the other commandant of the town. 
They never failed to give to the un- 
fortunate English under their care 
every indulgence of which a jealous 
and harsh government would allow. 

When he complained to the major 



STATE OF FRANCE. 23 

of the unnecessarily severe treat- 
ment he had met with at Mons, he re- 
plied, with great mildness and feeling, 
u I beg you to think nothing of it. 
The first orders we received about the 
English were so worded, that they 
were capable of the most cruel inter- 
pretation, and our prisoners expected 
the closest imprisonment, and every 
species of ill usage ; and wept with joy 
when they found we were men, and 
ready to treat them with humanity, 
and even with indulgence. We think 
them sufficiently unfortunate in being 
prisoners, and wish always to be re- 
garded astheir friends." 

All the English were at large within 
the town from the first hour of their ar- 
rival, after having signed a paper which 
purported that they would not attempt 
to go without its gates. At Verdun they 
procured apartments and provisions 
suitable to their means, and went once 



24 ACCOUNT OF THE 

once a day, between nine and twelve, 
to tlie^townjhouse, to sign the muster- 
roll. Those who conducted themselves 
prudently obtained, under the slightest 
pretences, a carte desortir, with which 
they might go out of the town after 
twelve, and remain in the country till 
seven in the evening, when an inquiiy 
was made whether they who had been 
out were returned. 

Verdun is an ill-built town, the 
houses small and low, and all the 
streets, except one, very narrow. In 
this are many good houses, and it has 
been distinguished by the name of 
Bond-street. The people are in general 
poor, or rather were so when the Eng- 
lish first became their guests. No doubt 
they are now enriched, for French- 
men know how to make a great advan- 
tage of a small profit. Their extreme 
frugality and spare diet enable them 
to make a saving where one of our 



STATE OF FRANCE. 25 

people would hardly procure the ne- 
cessaries of life. They appeared to be 
honest, and did not discover any parti- 
cular disposition to impose upon the 
English, who for the most part were 
unacquainted with the language, and 
the value of the articles they had occa- 
sion to buy. This may not be, and 
probably has not been, true of them 
all ; there are many Jews in the place, 
and no doubt some Christians with 
avaricious dispositions. 

The situation of the town is de- 
lightful. In the winter the overflow- 
ing of the Meuse, which passes di- 
rectly through the town, occasions the 
greater part of an extensive valley to 
be covered with water ; but in the 
summer, when the river is confined 
within its banks, and its winding 
course is seen from the neighbouring 
hills blushing with the fruit of the 
vine, it is a highly interesting spot 



2<5 ACCOUNT OF THE 

The army of " Great Brunswick's 
Duke" here partook of a short and 
treacherous banquet ; for arriving, on 
their expeditious march to Paris, 
amongst the vineyards when the grapes 
were not fully ripe, they filled them- 
selves with such greediness, and with 
so little regard to the persons whose 
property they were devouring, that 
they were speedily seized with a dy- 
sentery, and fell like leaves in autumn. 



STATE OF FRANCE, 



CHAPTER III. 

The Author's Return to Mons\ and Exertions 
to maintain his Family— Base Conduct of 
Mr. C r. — C d's Escape 3 and the con- 
sequent Treatment of his Countrymen— Per- 
mission obtained to remove to Amiens, and 
Departure for Holland— Arrest on the Fron- 
tiers, and Escape from his Guai^ds — Arri- 
val in Holland. 

AT his return to Mons, the author 
thought it expedient to justify the 
pretences of his kind advocates with 
the minister, by becoming really and 
bona fide a manufacturer. 

Nothing was to be done in the 
way of education. The little learning 
required by these descendants of the 
ancient Walloons, who have at no 
time been ambitious to be wise, was 
in the hands of their priests, from 
whom alone it could become esti- 



28 ACCOUNT OF THE 

mable. He had found a few scho- 
lars to learn the English language ; 
these had been of the natives of 
France, who held almost all the 
posts of honour and profit in the 
department. He had been wholly 
deceived in the reliance he had 
placed on his friend, through the 
means of whom he had chosen his 
residence at Moiis. He began there- 
fore, independently of any other pro- 
fession, a manufactory of straw hats, 
which were then coming into use 
in France. The English ladies who 
had visited the country during the 
short interval of peace, had com- 
municated a taste for the straw- 
work to the Belles of France. When 
he required permission to travel to 
other departments, and even to the 
frontiers of the empire, he obtained 
it with ease of the prefet. But 
once again his peace was disturbed, 



STATE OF FRANCE. £9 

and a worse calamity than the o- 
thers was likely to befal him from 
a source to which he had looked 
for pleasure and friendship. 

While at Verdun he became ac- 
quainted with a man of the name 
of C r. He had been an at- 
torney in England, and is known, 
it is presumed, at Salisbury, Belle- 
ricay, and Reading. This man was 
in a state of mind truly distressing; 
he was indeed almost distracted. 
His rolling eyes and wandering air 
discovered to all who saw him some- 
thing wrong in his intellect; and 
yet at times he was a pleasant en- 
tertaining companion. We naturally 
attach ourselves to the partners of 
our affliction, and cannot help feel- 
ing a more than common sympa- 
thy, when the evil lies heavier on 
them than it does on ourselves. 



SO ACCOUNT OF THE 

The author became useful to him 
by necessity. 

This gentleman could not speak 
French ; he was consuming away 
by his own sadness, and had no 
friend in whose society he could 
find relief. By the advice, and in- 
deed at the suggestion of the secre- 
tary of General Wirion, the author 

petitioned the minister that C — r 

might accompany him to Mans. 
In this application they were assisted 
by the general and the physician, 
who were distressed to see a man 
dying of ennui under their superin- 
tendance : a disease which appears 
to them the more terrible, as it is 
not frequently seen in their land. 
Humanity seems to have crept some- 
times into the councils of the French 
directors. Though their general mea- 
sures, which originated with Buona- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 31 

parte, were cruel, many instances oc- 
curred of individuals being indulged 
who were afflicted either in mind 
or in body. Mr. C — — r came to 
Mons, and with him a woman sup- 
posed to be his wife, with a child 
at the breast. 

A very short time discovered that 
this lady had been mistress to a 
younger branch of an eminent Jew- 
ish family in London, and had served 

as travelling companion to Mr. C r, 

who, to enjoy more completely the 
luxury of youth and beauty, had 
left a family unprovided for in his 
native country. This discovery, to- 
gether with some keen and well- 
supported battles, between Mr. C — — r 
and the lady, which made it necessary 
even for the police to interfere, deter- 
mined the author upon giving up wholly 
his acquaintance. It is a little remark- 
able, that though a prisoner of war him- 



32 ACCOUNT OF THE 

self, (for so he was still considered), 
this man was placed under his respon- 
sibility. It was therefore necessary 
that he should declare to the munici- 
pality that he would be no longer an- 
swerable in any respect for the beha- 
viour of Mr. C r. 

This was, nevertheless, managed in 
such a w r ay that no inconvenience 
might arise to him in consequence 
of it. He was, however, much ir- 
ritated against the author for break- 
ing off the acquaintance, and nou- 
rished a revenge, which he had no 
opportunity of manifesting, till the 
indiscreet letter of an English gen- 
tleman, addressed to the minister af- 
ter a breach of his word of honour 
given under circumstances of pecu- 
liar indulgence, occasioned a govern- 
ment order, that all those English- 
men wlio enjoyed any privilege as 
to the place of their residence, in 



STATE OF FRANCE. 33 

consequence of illness or infirmity, 
should be sent back again to Ver- 
dun. Mr. C was suddenly or- 
dered to return, and no reason as- 
signed for it. The escape of the 
above-mentioned gentleman was not 
publicly known, and he supposed 
that the author had written to the 
minister about him, and occasioned 
the order for his new arrest : he 
therefore denounced him to the ge- 
neral as having proposed to assist 
him in his escape into Germany 
for the sum of fifty pounds, to 
which proposal he had honourably 
refused to accede. The charge was 
without the slightest foundation, but 
now he was regarded as a guilty 
man, and must inevitably have suf- 
fered the heavy vengeance of the 
minister, if an officer of engineers, 
an excellent and amiable man, who 
was a friend on all occasions, and 

D 



l)4i ACCOUNT OF THE 

he may almost say at his command, 
had not overheard a private conver- 
sation which contradicted pointedly 
what had been laid to his charge. 
This he reported to the general and 
the prefet, and prevailed upon them 
to destroy the letters which had ac- 
tually been written and would an 
hour later have been sent off to 
Paris. The unprincipled C — was sent 
away the next morning, and the au- 
thor allowed to pursue his little en- 
gagements at Mons. But he could 
never wholly regain the good opi- 
nion of the rulers, nor convince 
them of his innocence. His situa- 
tion was a revolutionary one, in 
which an intimation was equal to a 
charge; and a man, from whatever 
cause, who is viewed with an eye 
of malevolence, may lose his liberty 
or his head at the suggestion of a 
rogue. It 15 enough that he be of 



STATE OF FRANCE. 35 

the suspected party, for him not 
to deserve or obtain a hearing, and 
not to be believed though he be 
heard. 

About this time he had applied 
to the minister for permission to re- 
move to Paris. He had seen that 
nothing could be done to any 
good purpose at Mons, either as a 
teacher or a manufacturer, while Pa- 
ris would have furnished sufficient 
resources for either. The answer 
returned was, that the request could 
not be complied with at that mo- 
ment. He then asked leave to set- 
tle at Amiens ; and having obtained 
it, he made a journey to that city, 
in order to make the necessary ar- 
rangements for the removal of the 
family. 

Here he found an army of twenty 
thousand men; and no house nor even 
apartments that were unoccupied* He 
d 2 



36 ACCOUNT OF THE 

was therefore obliged to remain at 
Mons a little longer, and took as 
lie supposed every precaution for 
his safety, by informing the magis- 
trates, under whose care he was 
placed, of the circumstance. As 
they were satisfied, he had no rea- 
son to suppose he had done wrong, 
or had neglected to do all that 
was right : but the general soon 
convinced him of his mistake, by 
ordering him again under arrest, 
and forbidding him to go / 0ttt of 
the town under pain of immediate 
and close imprisonment. 

Previously to this he had changed 
his design of going to Amiens for that 
of returning to England, having dis- 
covered that an escape might be prac- 
ticable, and had become necessary to 
the support of his family. He resolved 
to make use of the pretence of the one 
in order to bring the other to bear the 



STATE OF FRANCE. 37 

more conveniently. But he was shack- 
led with the parole which he had given, 
and in consequence of which he had en- 
joyed a certain degree of liberty. The 
last arrest, and the prohibition to quit 
the town, came at a seasonable moment 
to release him from every engagement. 

Having sent off his family in an open 
chaise under the care of a person who 
knew the country well, and who avoid- 
ed the places in which danger might 
be feared, he finished as nearly as he 
could what remained of his affairs, and 
trusted the secret of his real designs to 
only one person. Quitting the town 
towards the close of day, he travelled 
without interruption tillhe arrived with- 
in two leagues of the Dutch republic. 

He knew no fear but that of tailing 
into the hands of the gendarmes, who 
probably would have demanded his 
passport, and if so, would certainly 
have conducted him back. Speaking 



38 ACCOUNT OF THE 

French perfectly well, lie was not a sus- 
pected person, and could pass among 
that people as a native of France. He 
went in to sleep at a public house on 
the road side, where he could not sup- 
pose any evil would befal him, propo- 
sing to walk the remaining short dis- 
tance at an early hour the next morn- 
ing. While supping, he was alarmed 
with the intelligence that a gendarme 
lived at the next door, and usually 
came in to drink his pint where he then 
was, and that he was actually engaged 
with a comrade who was to sleep there 
that night, and might perhaps come in 
late. 

He requested to have a chamber to 
himself, went early to bed, and start- 
ed again as soon as it was light. Every 
thing promised kindly, and only one 
more house was to be passed, when, to 
his great surprise and vexation, he was 
stopped by an officer of the customs. 



STATE OF FItAXCE. 39 

who asked who he was, and whether 
he was bearer of a passport. A more 
particular examination ensued, he was 
betrayed by his papers, and ordered to 
be secured. 

The officers searched him with the 
strictest care, examined even Ins hat, 
and the stuffing of his handkerchief, 
took off his boots, and emptied his poc- 
kets. Unfortunately they found the 
little wreck of his property, and the 
produce of the sale of his effects, which 
being in louis, they declared to be for- 
feited, by virtue of a law, which pro- 
hibits the exportation of the coin of the 
realm. He was conducted before a 
justice of peace, who ordered him to 
be conducted back to Mons, by the 
gendarmerie, and who refused to re- 
store a single louis, to defray his ex- 
penses on the road, although it was 
well known that he had but little sil- 



40 ACCOUNT OF THE 

ver, and what was acknowledged not 
to be sufficient for necessary purposes. 
He was guarded by two men, the 
one armed with a cutlass, the other 
with a loaded musket, to -the place 
where he had slept the night before. 
There a disagreement arose between 
them and the gendarme; and, though 
much against their inclinations, they 
were under the necessity of remaining 
with him all night. They went there- 
fore to a public house together, where 
they partook of an indifferent supper. 
In the course of conversation, he had 
gained the good opinion of his guards, 
who supposed that his family was still 
at Mons, and that he intended to pe- 
tition the government for the restora- 
tion of his money; for he had pleaded 
before the justice, upon the authority 
of the grand juge, that being a pri- 
soner of the state, they had no right 



STATE^OF FRANCE. 41 

to take from him any thing about his 
person by any law of the realm what- 
ever; and the justice had, in conse- 
quence of that, refused to confirm the 
act of its condemnation, referring the 
question to a higher authority. 

One of his guards was extremely fa- 
tigued and sleepy, the other loved his 
pipe, and enjoyed it best in the open 
air. A moment favourable to decamp- 
ment very unexpectedly presented it- 
self, he made his escape out of a back 
door, ran across the garden, and aided 
by the obscurity of the night, was soon 
out of the reach of discovery. 

Once quit of his company, he wished 
not to rejoin it, and ran, or walked, 
leaped, tumbled, and sweated for three 
hours without resting, till he began 
to fear that by the perpetual windings 
he had made in a country partly cul- 
tivated and partly barren, he might 
luive gone back into France, instead 



42 ACCOUNT OF THE 

of having got into Holland. He was 
the more confirmed in this apprehen- 
sion by not being able to discover some 
striking objects which he had noticed 
the day before. With his clothes soak- 
ed in the moisture of his body he stop- 
ped under a shed near a small house. 
He sat down there and lost himself for 
a few minutes in sleep. When he 
awoke every nerve was in motion, and 
he felt an extreme coldness succeed to 
the heat. He got up, and endeavoured 
by exert ions to regain his warmth, and 
in about an hour knocked at the door 
of the cottage, and told the country- 
man he had lost his way. This man 
could speak nothing but the jargon of 
the country, which is a compound of 
Dutch, Flemish, and bad French; he 
got up, however, dressed himself, and 
conducted the author to a farmer, 
whose language was perfectly intelli- 
gible. 



STATE OF FRANCE. 43 

Upon inquiry where he was, great 
indeed was his surprise and disappoint- 
ment to learn, that he was within two 
fields of the spot from which he had 
started, and within sight of the gen- 
darme's house. He told the farmer, 
that if he would conduct him into 
Holland he would pay him for his trou- 
hie, and added, , that he must not, on 
any consideration, meet with the offi- 
cers of the customs. The farmer un- 
derstood by this that he was a smug- 
gler, and assured him he had nothing 
to fear. He got some breakfast with 
this good man, warmed himself well 
by his fire, put on a blue smock-frock, 
and away they posted across the heath, 
his heart palpitating, and his eyes turn- 
ing from side to side at every step. 

This heath country, which liespartly 
in France and partly in Holland, is much 
frequented by smugglers, who convey 
large quantities of English merchan- 



44 ACCOUNT OF THE 

dize into France upon their backs ; and 
in order to catch these men, the offi- 
cers are stationed pretty thick, some* 
times in one place, and sometimes in 
another. They conceal themselves in 
the holes, and often have dogs to give 
the alarm of any thing in motion. As 
the officers had seen the author the 
day before at their office, it would have 
been destruction to all his hopes to 
have met any one of them. But they 
arrived safe on the frontier in a cou- 
ple of long and anxious hours. It was 
distinguishable by a rivulet over which 
they were to leap. The reader will be- 
lieve that this was not too wide, nor 
that ever a leap furnished an adven- 
turer more real satisfaction ; for the 
Frenchmen had said the day before, 
that they dared not touch any one on 
Dutch ground, without an express au- 
thority from the mayor of the com- 
mune. Here the author parted with 



STATE OF FRANCE. 45 

his guide,, after having returned him 
his frock, and paid him the price of 
his service, and made away for Lo- 
mond, the first village in Holland. 



46 ACCOUNT OF TH£ 



CHAPTER IV. 

Imminent Risk of being arrested again. Kind* 
ness of the Dutch People. Journey through 
Holland, and Arrival at Embden*>-Rejlec* 
tions on Emigration — Sources of the Infor- 
mation contained in tlie following pages. 

1 HE author stopped longer at Lomond 
than he intended, because the person to 
whom he was recommended by his 
guide was not at home, and it was ne- 
cessary he should procure information 
of the route he ought to pursue. He 
went on by his advice to another person. 
When he entered the house, the Dutch- 
man looked at him with a curiosity 
that he did not like, because it seemed 
to betoken no good. After inquiring 
his way to Breda, the Dutchman said, 
" There was an Englishman stopped 
two days ago at Holvenne, from whom 
they took a good deal of money, and 



STATE OF FRANCE. 47 

he has got away again : I thought it 
might be you." — " Oh, no!" replied 
the author, " I am a Frenchman." — 
" Well," said the Dutchman, " I men- 
tioned it with a view to serve you, if 
you were the person, for the gendarmes 
are now in the village, and have asked 
leave of the mayor to search through 
it, and they have traced him over the 
sands by the print of his boots. 

The authors agitation may easily be 
conceived when he thought himself 
likely once more to fall into the hands 
of his enemies, and of the risk he had 
actually run, for he had passed a few 
minutes before in front of the house 
where they then were, and one of them 
was the man to whom he had been 
presented the evening before. He 
thought truth would serve him better 
than falsehood : he declared that he 
was the man, and begged for his 
friendly assistance. 



48 ACCOUNT OF THE 

The Dutchman used every assurance 
to restore tranquility to his mind, con- 
veyed him away into a private place 
where he could not be discovered, 
and sent him victuals and drink. 
While in this retreat, the mayor came 
Math a long pipe in his mouth to greet 
him, to congratulate him on his escape, 
and feelingly to lament the loss of his 
money. He told him the gendarmes 
were gone, and assured him, upon 
his word, that if they returned and 
found him, he would not allow 7 them 
to make him their prisoner. He added, 
that the author had great merit in 
their eyes, because he had been too 
deep for the Frenchmen, and that he 
might command every assistance they 
could give. He spent the evening 
with these excellent people, and the 
next morning the father of his good 
cl friend in need" set off with him for 
Bois le Due. He refused to take any 



STATE OF FRANCE. 49 

money for the entertainment he had 
received at his house, and put him into 
the bark; which conveyed him the 
same day to Rotterdam. 

Here he found his family, who had 
not doubted that some evil had befal- 
len him, because he had delayed his 
coming. Packets were at this time 
sailing every week for London, and 
one was going off the next day. The 
greater part of the French troops had 
quitted the country, and the guards 
were every where Dutch. But the 
French commissioners at Rotterdam 
were very scrupulous about the pas- 
sengers that went off in the packets; 
and it would have been to expose him- 
self to great danger to attempt em- 
barking from thence. The commis- 
sioners might indeed have been bought 
over, as they frequently were, making, 
by this mean, their post a lucrative one ; 
but their countrymen at the custom 

E 



50 ACCOUNT OF THE 

house had previously secured the cash, 
and the packets were very extravagant 
in their charges. 

Without losing any time, therefore, 
the family set off for Amsterdam, 
where the author found many respect- 
able sympathising friends belonging to 
the church in which he had officiated 
fourteen years before. They not only 
felt for his misfortunes, and partook 
in his joy, but offered him pecuniary 
assistance, and procured him a Prussian 
passport With this they went for- 
ward through Groningen to Delfzil r 
the only place where any interruption 
was apprehended. The Prussian pass- 
port being exhibited, every obstacle 
vanished ; and after three hours' sailing 
they arrived safe at Embden, which the 
sagacity of Frederick the Great has 
rendered a safe retreat for the subjects 
of every government. Here the author 
enjoyed a tranquility of mind to which 



STATE OF FRANCE. 51 

he had been for almost three years a 
stranger. He felt himself nearly at 
home, and in effect was so, after a pas- 
sage of four days, two of which were 
passed on the river Ems. They landed 
at Gravesend, himself, his wife, four 
children, and a servant, after a voyage 
undertaken perhaps with some degree 
of rashness, conducted with danger and 
in fear, and finished exactly with the 
contents of their purse. 

From the slow methods of travelling 
across Holland, and unavoidable de- 
lays, a month was taken up in their 
passage from the gates of Mons to the 
alien office in Gravesend. To the 
friends he left behind in his native 
country, he owes a large tribute of 
thanks, who -prevented his experienc- 
ing similar distresses to those which 
he saw many of his countrymen endure 
at Valenciennes and Verdun. For un- 
der such an uninterrupted instability 
e 2 



52 ACCOUNT OF THE 

of affairs, and such frequent changes, 
it must be supposed that he not only 
could not provide, by his industry, 
what was necessary for his family , but 
that he must spend at a rapid rate. 

Such is the history of his wrongs, 
sustained from a government in which 
there once seemed reason to place a 
confidence, but whicli has been actu- 
ated by a principle of which even the 
despotic Sultan might be ashamed. Let 
his countrymen take warning by the 
foregoing lesson, and recollect, that al- 
though they must consent to some pri- 
vations in order to support the govern- 
ment that protects them, these are less 
grievous than the risks to which emi- 
gration gives birth, and that they can- 
not calculate upon the consequences 
of unsettling a family that have the 
means of support by their industry. 

The circumstances in which the au- 
thor was by necessity placed, obliged 



STATE OF FRANCE* 53 

him to .travel a good deal about the 
country. He usually went on foot or 
in the public diligences, and sought 
every occasion on the road of obtain- 
ing a knowledge of the real feelings 
and sentiments of the people. Hence 
originated the account of the manners 
and customs of the inhabitants, which 
is contained in the following pages. 
It will be found, in some places, to 
enter into the minutiae of family life. 
It is from these, and perhaps from 
these alone, that a just idea of the 
true situation and actual happiness of 
a people is to be gathered. 

We learn little of the state of a 
nation from the higher circles of a me- 
tropolis, and none at all of it from the 
pomp and splendour of a court. The 
farmer's table, and the creditable trades- 
man's fireside, in a country town, pre- 
sent a more faithful picture of the 
resources and condition of the mass of 



54* ACCOUNT OF THE 

the people. It is these we shall have 
occasion to visit, and from them we shall 
hear the unreserved and unvarnished 
tale of their attachment to their go- 
vernment, or disapprobation of its 
measures ; of their regard to their 
church, or indifference to its ceremo- 
nies ; of their esteem for its priests, or 
their contempt of their office ; of the 
advancement or decrease of their do- 
mestic happiness, and of the progress 
of those arts and sciences which are 
essential to the comfort of the middling 
and lower orders of society, 

The English have had but little op- 
portunity of knowing the actual state 
of France since the Revolution. They 
have been excluded the country, or 
shut up in prisons, or within the walls 
of fortified towns, where, associating 
chiefly among themselves, they have 
heard little more than bitter complaints 
and seen scarcely any thing but una- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 55 

vailing tears. The scenes of distress in 
which they have partaken, have been 
what the sympathizing mind may well 
imagine; but so numerous, and so vari- 
ous, that it is impossible to be very 
particular in recording them. From 
what has been related respecting the 
author, may be drawn a general view 
of the sufferings of others. 



56 ACCOUNT OF THE 



CHAPTER V. 

Men of lozo Birth raised to Eminence — Buona- 
parte's Animosity to the English — Proofs he 
gave of it — Sufferings of the English in con- 
sequence -Of Dr. M. — Of Mr. S. — Account 
of the Depots — Number of the Prisoners — 
Government Allowance to therm 

mOST of the public authorities in 
France have been raised to their high 
stations by the convulsions of the re- 
volution. And as we find to be the 
case in the convulsions of the natural 
world, those objects are often found 
upon elevated spots, which were form- 
ed to move in a lower sphere. Raised 
above the atmosphere in which: they 
were destined to breathe, their power 
of action is suppressed, and they be- 
come useless or dangerous. This 



STATE OF FRANCE. 57 

observation may not be untrue of 
the present order of rich men in 
France, but applies more immedi- 
ately to the military authorities now 
existing there. They look for further 
advancement to the supreme head, who 
is regulated in the promotion of his 
officers by nothing but his own incli- 
nation. They are therefore induced 
to put his decrees into execution in 
whatever way they apprehend will be 
the most acceptable to the emperor. 
Some of them thought they could not 
be too prompt or too severe In the 
execution of that against the English, 
because, on many occasions, Buonaparte 
showed so marked an animosity to the 
English name. On his visits to some of 
the towns, at the breaking out of the 
war, he asked, with an evident anxiety, 
" how many Englishmen were in the 
place?" and when informed of their 
number replied, "there were so many 



58 ACCOUNT OF THE 

too many. " He refused to enter one 
town till the English that were in 
it were sent away, and immediately 
displaced the mayor of another, who 
could ndt inform him how many of 
our countrymen it contained. 

In the department of the Pas de Ca- 
lais he laid a positive injunction on the 
prefet, not to suffer a single Englishman 
to remain there.The event of such rigour 
was, that occupations and institutions 
were overset, and men who for twen- 
ty and even forty years had maintain- 
ed a respectable and useful character 
in the country, were arrested, taken to 
prison, obliged to sell their effects, 
without any preparation for a sale, 
and themselves conveyed from brigade 
to brigade, lodged in the public pri- 
sons, as they went along, and sub- 
jected to imposition, and sometimes 
to pillage. 

Amongst others who suffered this 



STATE OF FRANCE. 59 

cruel treatment at Calais was a physi- 
cian who had introduced the vaccine 
inoculation into France. He was then 
a prey to a lingering disease, under 
which he had long laboured; but nei- 
ther the services he had rendered to 
the country, nor his own personal cha- 
racter, which stood the highest possi- 
ble in the public esteem, nor the mi- 
serable state he was in, prevented his 
being also moved away. In this state 
of infirmity he was put into a coach, 
but could not 2*0 bevond the Basse- 
ville, where humanity, or perhaps ne- 
cessity, stopped his march, and he 
remained under the inspection of a 
soldier. The indignation of a people 
who have been generally signalized by 
their civility to strangers, was roused 
at this treatment, and a representation 
being made to the grand juge (chief 
justice), to whom all cases are referred 
that require an explanation either of 



60 ACCOUNT OF THE 

the decrees of the emperor or laws of 
the state, he wrote the very pointed 
letter to the sub-prefet, of which we 
have already had occasion to take no- 
tice. Dr. M was accordingly set 

at liberty. 

A relaxation in the persecution of 
the English was the effect of this de- 
cision; but it was of no avail to those 
who had already suffered the loss of 
their all, and had been placed in the 
depot. For when once made prisoners, 
there were but few instances occurred 
of their being released. It is easy to 
execute an equivocal order, but not so 
easy for a proud mind to confess it has 
been wrong, or to undo what it has 
done to effect the misery of mankind. 
Nor does it appear that this decision 
was of any effectual lasting service. 
The persecution was renewed at differ- 
ent periods, and in different places, 
from no known motive, but the dis- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 6l 

position of the commanding officer, or 
the express order of the minister, or 
perhaps the capricious will of the chief 
vaguely expressed and indifferently un- 
derstood. 

While some few were screened by 
the favor of a general or commander, 
others fell the sacrifice of private re- 
venge. A striking instance of this 

occurred at St. Omers : Mr. S was 

educated in France; he had resided 
there from the ao*e of fourteen to that 
of thirty. He had purchased very large- 
ly of the national estates and in the 
funds, and the greater part of his pro- 
perty was in the country. He was 
then engaged in beautifying his noble 
mansion near that city. Amongst o- 
thers, he had purchased a large estate 
belonging to a nobleman who had emi- 
grated, but whose name had been erased 
from the list, and who had himself been 
allowed to return. He was the inti- 



62 ACCOUNT OF THE 

mate friend of the sub-prefet, and this 
gentleman interested himself greatly 
to persuade Mr. S. to restore the noble- 
man's estate at a small advance upon 
the price he had paid for it. This Mr. 
S. was not willing to do, and the sub- 
prefet, in revenge, ordered a gendarme 
to arrest him and conduct him to Va- 
lenciennes; nor was it till after many 
months that he obtained permission to 
return to the enjoyment of his property. 
It was long before the arrestations 
were at an end. Eight months after 
the first order, some of those who had 
lived a considerable time at Dieppe, 
arrived at Verdun. To what has been 
already said of their treatment in 
the depots we need only add, that 
those who attempted to escape, but 
did not succeed, were more closely 
confined in the small fortress of Bitche, 
or in some narrow insulated prison 
within the sight of their countrymen. 



STATE OF FRANCE., 65 

in order to strike a terror into the rest. 
At the beginning of the war, Fontain- 
bleau and Valenciennes were chosen to 
receive the hostages. At the former 
were placed those who were arrested 
at Paris and on its western side, and at 
the latter those avIio were taken in the 
northern departments indiscriminately. 
The prisoners at Fontainbleau were af- 
terwards removed to Verdun, with 
those who were the most respectable 
at Valenciennes ; and the poor sailors, 
and other unfortunate persons who 
could not maintain themselves, to the 
citadel in Valenciennes. It has been 
said, that since the breaking out of the 
war with Austria all of them have been 
removed back to Valenciennes, it be- 
ing thought that Verdun was too much 
in the road of the king of Prussia, or 
the other powers of the north. The 
sailors in the citadel of Valenciennes 
had the liberty of going out into the 



64 ACCOUNT OF THE 

town every day to work, and a con- 
siderable number of them were always 
to be seen on the market place after 
their roll-call, in waiting for persons 
that would hire them; A few respect- 
able families were allowed to remain 
the whole time at Valenciennes ; a- 
mongst the number was Lord Barring- 
ton, who has distinguished himself by 
his humanity ; for he has been lavish 
even to profusion in his charities to 
the poor, and has done incalculable 
good to the distressed. For a consi- 
derable time he distributed money 
daily to a number of pensioners ; and 
we believe it may be said, that no one 
in want ever applied to him in vain. 
In the summer of this year, 1805, 
there were about seven hundred at Ver- 
dun, nearly as many at Valenciennes, 
a thousand at Givet, and about that 
number at another place. The go- 
vernment allowance was a pound and 



STATE OF FRAXCE. 65 

a half of ammunition bread per day, 
which is a compound of wheat and rye, 
the common bread of the country, 
sweet and nourishing, when well made: 
but as contractors too often flourish at 
the expense of the miserable wretches 
they are to feed in that country as well 
as in this, the intention of government 
is not always fulfilled, and they some- 
times eat what is fit only for the cat- 
tle. They have also an allowance of 
three pounds of beef per week, which 
is sometimes fat and good, but it not 
unfrequently resembles the worst meat 
that is brought to Smithfield market, 
and which is sometimes purchased for 
similar purposes. 



66 ACCOUNT OF THE 



CHAPTER VI. 

'Ancient Walloons— Different Changes of the 
Government of their Country — Resources — 
Mines — Quarries — Houses — Churches and 
Convents— Produce of the Land — Glimate— 
English Merchandize in high Estimation — ■ 
Coals. 

1 HE descendants of the ancient Wal- 
loons, the inhabitants of Haiuault, now 
the department of iemmappes and its 
vicinity, partake of the character and 
dispositions of the French and the Fle- 
mish people. Not so light and fickle as 
the one, though equally attached to 
dancing, and other amusements ; nor 
so cold and formal as the other, yet pur- 
suing, in many of their manners and 
diversions, the same habits of life. 
They are the offspring of one of the 
detachments of the Saxon people, who 
quitting their country at an early pe- 
riod in search of adventures, estab- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 67 

lished themselves in many different 
parts of Europe. Their language has 
been in a great measure lost for some 
centuries. From their vicinity to 
France, and by becoming a province 
of that Monarchy, they fell into the 
use of the French language, which has, 
since been universally spoken among 
them. Some of the country people 
still retain a mixture of their ancient 
dialect, and talk a language that is 
not intelligible to everv Frenchman ; 
besides which, they have a twang in 
their manner of speaking, by which 
they are known to belong to the neigh- 
bourhood of Mons. At all periods of 
their history they have been a discon- 
tented and rebellious race. Unable 
of themselves to maintain an indepen- 
dency, yet seldom satisfied for any 
length of time with one master, they 
have been ready and solicitous to enlist 
under another chief. Situated in the 
f 2 



68 ACCOUNT OF THE 

neighbourhood of so many powers, 
and possessing considerable resources 
within themselves, others have been 
tempted to invade them and make 
their country the theatre of war. 

Here are coal-mines in abundance; 
and, as is usually the case, iron ore in 
their vicinity ; stone quarries of differ- 
ent kinds, but all of them useful; and 
marble of an inferior quality. They 
have also an excellent lime-stone, be- 
sides chalk and good brick earth. 
With these advantages for building, it 
may be supposed that their towns are 
well built, and that their houses are 
strong and durable. They really are 
so; and the appearance of the towns in 
this department, and of the Nether- 
lands in general, is truly pleasing to 
the eye. The houses are high, and 
covered chiefly with slate; the rooms 
are lofty, and the ceilings are finished 
with a peculiar degree of elegance. 



STATE OF FRANCE. 69 

The work is strong, and a large quan- 
tity of materials is put into the build- 
ings ; but after all, they have nothing 
in them of what we call comfort ; no- 
thins: of that finish that serves for a 
sweetener to the substantial good things 
with which the Creator has furnished 
us, but which must itself come from 
human ingenuity and industry. It is 
a striking part of the French at large, 
that they cannot express in their lan- 
guage the idea of comforts of life. 
Perhaps as the thing is unknown to 
them, they do not require the name. 
There is elegance in the houses of the 
great, there is magnificence ; but un- 
der the roofs of the other classes of 
men, there are not the neatness and 
satisfaction even of an English cottage. 
We have a thousand little accommo- 
dations in our dwellings, which are 
united onlv in our island, and which 



70 ACCOUNT OF THE 

give a high relish to the greater bles- 
sings of life. 

The churches in Flanders are large 
and handsome, many of them of ele- 
gant workmanship. The quantity of 
iron, lead, timber, and hewn stones 
which they contained, presented a 
temptation that could not be resisted 
in the time of republican anarchy ; and, 
in consequence, a very considerable 
number even of the parish churches 
were pulled to pieces, or wholly thrown 
down for the sake of these materials. 
The convents and churches were a 
richer prey to the levellers in Flanders 
than in France, where they either 
have not had materials for building in 
such abundance, or the enthusiasm of 
the people has not led them to erect 
so many stupendous edifices to the 
name of their saints. One cannot now 
pass through this country without feel- 



STATE OF FRANCE. l\ 

ing a painful impression at the sight 
of the ruins of ancient monuments so 
lately the pride of the people : for, 
however we may condemn the super- 
stition that raised them, we must be- 
hold with a high satisfaction such mag- 
nificent works ; and the pious mind 
may reflect with pleasure, that man 
has raised them to the honour of that 
God from whom he has received all. 

The land of Jemmappes is in as high 
a state of cultivation as the nature of 
the country will allow. Their farmers, 
though not equal to the Flemish far- 
mers in wealth and consequence, are not 
behind them in agricultural science 
and industry. Their ground is co- 
vered with fine crops of corn, and 
they grow a large quantity of flax and 
hemp and other seeds, for the extract- 
ing of oils. 

The climate resembles that of Eng- 



72 ACCOUNT OF THE 

land. It has been said that the perpe- 
tual variations to which we are sub- 
ject, are owing to our insular situa- 
tion, and to our being exposed to the 
winds that come over the sea to us in 
every direction. It appears, however, 
that the continent in the same lati- 
tude is subject to similar varieties. 
A residence of two entire years, and 
the testimony of the inhabitants as to 
prior seasons, have fully convinced the 
writer that they experience the same 
fluctuation of weather as we do, and 
that sometimes the four seasons seem 
to visit them within the space of 
twenty-four hours. The winters are 
of the same severity as they are here, 
and the summers seem to have been 
of late equally unwilling to begin. 
This year (1805) particularly, which 
has been distinguished through the 
summer months by a singularly unpro- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 73 

mising appearance, has produced with 
them, as with us, the most abundant 
crops, and the finest samples of corn. 

The people of the towns have a com- 
mercial spirit, and have always car- 
ried on a considerable trade with Eng- 
land, which is greatly to the advan- 
tage of this country, as no part of their 
industry, except a small quantity of 
lace, and a little linen cloth, are pur- 
chased of them for our use. They are 
passionately fond of English manufac- 
tures. Indeed no good articles can 
be bought in their shops, that did not 
originate in the British isles. Nor 
can we wonder at their partiality for 
English merchandize, since the woollen 
and cotton goods in general that are 
procured from other markets, are mi- 
serably wrought, and dear to the 
wearer even at any price. This coun- 
try has been so frequently the theatre 
of war, and they have so few manu- 



74 ACCOUNT OF THE 

factories among them, that it might 
be presumed they have been always 
poor and miserable. But this is far 
from the case. Those very wars which 
have been the scourge of their land, 
have occasioned the spending of large 
sums of money amongst them, and 
the disposal of their superabundant 
produce upon the spot where it has 
been grown, or whence it has been 
dug from their mines. 

The coal trade has of late years fur- 
nished them immense resources, as the 
greater part of the low countries of 
Holland, and some parts of France, 
are supplied by their merchants. And 
the coals become dearer as the wood is 
less abundant, and proportionally high 
in price. During the time of peace, 
the whole coast of France, and of Hol- 
land, had been supplied with coal by 
the Newcastle traders, and doubt- 
less they would again, if peace were 



STATE OF FRANCE. 75 

re-established, because the Newcastle 
coals are much superior to theirs. But 
now the department of Jemmappes fur- 
nishes the greater part. They have 
the convenience of a canal which runs 
from Jemmappes through Conde and 
Valenciennes into Flanders, audit there 
branches out to the principal towns on 
the coast ; and they have also a com- 
munication with the Pthine, by which 
they convey their coals into Holland. 
That republic is also served in part 
with this article from the late bishop- 
rick of Liege, which lies upon the river 
Meuse. 



76' ACCOUNT OF THE 



CHAPTER VII. 

Revolt of the People at the Instigation of the 
Priests— Conduct of Joseph II — Dismant- 
ling of the Towns') and Sale of Convents — 
Entire dismantling of the Tozons by Napo- 
leon — Battle of Jcmmappes. 

I HE Flemings were for a longtime 
subjects of the court of Vienna ; but 
Spain, at that time a warlike nation, 
subjected them to her dominion, and 
retained them as her vassals during a 
long series of years. At length they 
yielded to the Austrian power, who 
found in them a valuable acquisition, 
on account of their contiguity to her 
territories. It does not appear that 
Austria ruled them with much severity. 
Their states continued always to as- 
semble at Mons, the seat of the former 
government j and no taxes could be 



STATE OF FRANCE. 77 

laid, nor armies levied, without the 
consent of the states. 

The internal government of the 
country was in their own hands, and 
they were visited at intervals by their 
emperor, who was generally esteemed 
amongst them as a friend. In every 
state, however, turbulent minds spring- 
up. It is, perhaps, the most unthank- 
ful office in the world to govern men : 
for as their minds are so variously coin- 
posed and their interests so opposite, it 
is not possible for a sovereign to give uni- 
versal satisfaction. A spirit of patri- 
otism, as it was falsely called, fo- 
mented by the priests, discovered it- 
self. A general agitation took place ; 
the priests were seen at the head of 
the soldiers exciting them to rebellion, 
and nothing but a signal punishment 
could effectually suppress it. On this 
occasion Joseph II determined to di- 
minish the power of the priests, and 



78 ACCOUNT OF THE 

by degrees effectually to get rid of those 
locusts of the land. Their possessions 
in this country were immense, their 
houses rich; their churches abounded 
in gold and in grandeur; they were not 
satisfied with all this, but would have 
taken from the throne the little it re- 
quired for its support. He put it out 
of their power to raise a serious re- 
bellion against him in future, by dis- 
mantling their fortifications, destroying 
the outworks of their garrisoned towns, 
filling up the ditches, and selling the 
land. At the same time one third of the 
convents w r ere abolished, their property 
sold for the benefit of the state, and 
the monks and nuns allowed to go 
into the other religious houses. In 
the town of Mons, ten out of thirty 
were put down, and it seemed as if a 
measure of this kind had become ne- 
cessary. For whether it was, that 
the people had become less partial to 



STATE OF FRANXE. 79 

the monkish habit, and recluse man- 
ner of life, or whether the monks and 
sisters were more unwilling to let 
others partake the good fruits of their 
forefathers' superstition, certain it is, 
that many of these societies had be- 
come very small in point of number, 
and that large ranges of building, with 
considerable incomes, were enjoyed by 
twenty, ten, and even by four or 
five persons. Not a doubt is enter- 
tained in the low countries that it was 
the intention of Joseph to have com- 
pleted the work he had begun, and to 
have abolished the whole mass of con- 
vents and abbeys together in a short 
time, if the victorious republicans /had 
not taken the work out of his hands, 
by sweeping away them and thousands 
more at once. 

The dismantling of the towns was an 
essential service rendered to the people, 
however the states might be clisho- 



80 ACCOUNT OF THE 

noured by the event. For being no 
longer able to oppose a victorious army, 
they opened their gates on its arrival, 
and by that means avoided the dread- 
ful consequences of long and distres- 
sing sieges. When, therefore, the cele- 
brated battle of Jemmappes was fought 
within sight of the walls of Mons, and 
the Austrian troops were forced to re- 
treat towards the Rhine, the mayor 
stood ready with the keys of the town 
in his hand to present to the conquer- 
or, who did not permit any pillage 
or attack upon private property. At 
that time their minds, like the public 
mind at large, were elate with the pieas- 
ing'hope of liberty.' They volunteered 
themselves the associates of the French 
republic, requested to be incorporated 
into it ; and getting rid at once of their 
emperor, their priests, and the burdens 
upon their state, they became proud 
of that boasted equality of which they 



STATE OF FRANCE. 81 

had pleased themselves with the ex- 
pectation. 

A farther and a more complete dis- 
mantling of these towns, and many 
others which are new in the interior, 
has taken place within a few months, 
by the order of the emperor Napoleon. 
Having.no longer any occasion for them, 
as garrison towns, the commandants, 
and stationary officers of engineers, 
are set aside, the barracks and other 
buildings that remained in the hands 
of the government have been sold, 
and every appearance of fortifica- 
tion taken away, except the old walls 
that surround the towns. These, with 
the best of the barracks, have been pur- 
chased by the towns themselves; the 
former to be preserved for an orna- 
ment, and the latter to be repaired for 
the reception of soldiers, who may be 
quartered there, that individuals may 

G 



$2 ACCOUNT OF THE 

not be liable to the embarrassment of 
receiving them into their houses. 

Our readers will no doubt have ima- 
gined that the celebrated battle of 
Jemappes was fought upon a distin- 
guished eminence ; and if they recol- 
lect the description given of that bat- 
tle, will suppose that the French troops 
had to ascend a lofty mountain, on 
whose declivity were placed the Aus- 
trian redoubts strongly entrenched one 
above another, so as to have been al- 
most impregnable. Such certainly was 
the idea conveyed by the French ac- 
counts of that engagement. The fact 
is, the Austrians were encamped on 
a gentle rise, up which the plough 
passes with the greatest ease, and 
where there is now scarcely any ap- 
pearance of fortifications having ever 
been raised. The redoubts of the Aus- 
trians were breast-works thrown up 
at the moment and defended by their 



STATE OF FRANCE. 83 

cannon. And certainly those who 
will seek " reputation at the cannon's 
mouth," must do it at an immense risk. 
To do all justice to the French repub- 
lican soldiers, it must be confessed that 
the attack was well conducted, and 
gained them an immortal reputation ; 
but when their account of a battle is 
to be translated into English, or is 
read by our countrymen in their 
own language, a due consideration 
ought to be paid to the genius of the 
two languages, and the two people, 
which is so materially different ; a re- 
gard also must be had to the meaning 
of the correspondent terms, which fre- 
quently differ. A mountain in French, is 
often a little hill in English, as a man 
in France would be charmed with $ 
thing with which anEnglishman would 
scarcely be satisfied ; and an act of civi- 
lity which would make an English lady 
blush, cannot be dispensed with in a 
g 2 



84 ACCOUNT OF THE 

French society. It is in consequence of 
the custom of translating literally from 
their gazettes, that we gain sometimes 
an idea of what they say, or of what 
they do, vastly greater than even they 
themselves have ever entertained ; and 
hence they have been often charged 
with gasconading and with flattery, 
neither of which, in fact, were intended. 
Though the French appear to us given 
to bombast, and devoted to compliment, 
yet it may be doubted whether they 
have really more of the one or the other 
than the inhabitants of our island, be- 
cause custom has taught them, though 
it has not us, the meaning of the words 
they employ ; and we well know that 
all governments view in an equally fa- 
vourable light, and describe in the 
most pointed language, the advantages 
which they gain over their enemies, and 
are equally unsolicitous about adhering* 
too closely to the truth. 



STATE OF FRANCE. $5 



CHAPTER VIIL 

Account of the People — Sale of Church Property 
— Satisfaction of the People upon it — State 
of the Country under the Emperor — The 
Towns large and rich — The Country poor — 
Farmers' Labourers. 

1 HE mass of every people is poor. 
They have little to lose, and are apt to 
aspire after the wealth of those they en- 
vy. The people of Flanders and of 
France were particularly poor. They 
had not the same incitements to industry, 
which exist in a free country ; and were- 
almost wholly destitute of that large 
and respectable body of men, that are 
at once the honour and happiness of 
our nation, men of moderate fortunes. 
Although the number of their nobles 
was large, yet it was small, in com- 
parison of the body of the people. 
These men, and the religious societies 



86 ACCOUNT OF THE 

united, held almost the whole of the 
landed property. The flight of the privi- 
leged orders from the country, and the 
dissolution of the houses apparently de- 
dicated to penitence, but actually de- 
voted to lust, presented them with a 
scramble, in which each hoped to 
come in for a share. There are few 
who will hesitate to acknowledge, that 
by the rule of right, the wealth of the 
monasteries was a fair game for the 
people. It had been extorted by re- 
ligious fears ; by the most powerful of 
all, the fear of future punishments, from 
their trembling d} T ing fathers, who had 
given for the salvation of their souls, 
what ought to have supplied the wants 
of their children ; and had paid to be 
delivered themselves from purgatory, 
that which should have saved their 
descendants from a prison. Therefore, 
when it was sold back to the people, 
and at a very moderate price, it re- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 87 

turned into the hands of those, who 
alone had a right to hold it ; and 
became the source of life and happiness 
to thousands of industrious families, 
instead of feeding the pampered bodies 
of those, who were not only useless to 
society, but who had become its fear 
and its curse* 

It may safely be asserted, that the 
people at large saw, with satisfaction, 
the dissolution of the religious houses; 
not only the unthinking and dissolute 
part of them, but also the serious and 
thoughtful, and even those who at- 
tached themselves the most strongly 
to the catholic religion. They had 
already been persuaded that priestcraft: 
and mummery did not belong to Chris- 
tianity, and that idle devotion was not 
the duty of the followers of Jesus : 
they loved their church, and its cere- 
monies ; and education had made them 
desire to see their great Matron' and 



88 ACCOUNT OF THE 

Intercessor not in a stable with her 
infant in a manger, but in the no- 
blest buildings their country could 
boast of, bedecked with the silks of 
Persia, the gold of Peru, and all the 
richest spoils of the east. They es- 
teemed religion the more when accom- 
panied by wealth, pomp, and cere- 
mony ; but they had entirely aban- 
doned the belief, that the pretensions 
of monastic piety had any thing to do 
with it; they saw therefore, with a 
secret joy, the despoiling of the mo- 
nasteries, but had not discernment 
enough to spy out, in its full extent, 
the meaning of liberty, fraternity, and 
equality. Experience has taught them, 
that the change from the useless and 
dangerous parts of the old system, to 
the heavy burdens and miseries of the 
new, has not proved favourable. Un- 
der the emperor they paid so few taxes, 
that the weight of them was hardly 



STATE OF TRANCE. 89 

felt. While commerce flourished, and 
they had the means of buying the pro- 
duce of other countries, and selling 
some of their own, the creditors of 
the state received their payments regu- 
larly, and many of them lived in com- 
fort upon the fruits of the labour of 
their younger years. 

The roads were always kept in the 
best order ; the quartering of soldiers 
was well regulated, and easy ; and no 
personal service forced from them. 
The troops were handsomely paid by the 
emperor, and they spent their money 
freely in the towns where they were 
stationed. The monasteries, though 
the seats of indolence, were some of 
them the nurseries of charity : they 
gave, at stated periods, bread, soup, 
and money to the poor; so that a 
family in distress could not want a 
homely, but nourishing repast ; and 
the indigent were always found in the 



90 ACCOUNT OF THE 

neighbourhood of the convents. The 
income of the nobility was usually 
spent in the large towns ; and they 
had their appointed periods also of 
distributing their alms: and, moreover, 
there were many rich endowments for 
the support of orphans and foundlings, 
the sick and the old, which were 
conducted with care, and furnished a 
large relief to the miseries of human 
life. 

On the continent there are but few 
small towns: most of them are large; 
the inhabitants who were not obliged 
to reside in the country, flying to 
them for protection, from the effects 
of wars and civil disturbances among 
them. Here they were secured by the 
fortifications and the garrison, and 
were but little afraid of an enemy 
without their walls ; and as the num- 
ber of these towns was limited, they 
were not at liberty to follow individual 



STATE OF FRANCE. 91 

fancy, in erecting new places of abode, 
where they might be in safety. 

Such were the towns which con- 
tained a small part of the population 
of the land. In the country, a very 
different scene presented itself to what 
we witness in the corresponding parts 
of our kingdom. Where mines or 
quarries furnished an independent la- 
bour to the poor, they had sufficient 
means of support, although the price of 
their labour was not enough to raise 
them above the station in which they 
were born. 

In the agricultural departments, the 
labourer was necessarily poor; and so 
was the farmer. One-third part of the 
land belonged to the religious estab- 
lishments, houses, and churches ; and 
the principal part of the other two- 
thirds, to the nobles and the sovereign ; 
the latter of whom never sold his 
estates, the former very seldom : there- 



9Q ACCOUNT OF THE 

fore a man, even of large wealth, could 
not easily become a landholder. The 
farmers could not be rich, because 
they were the tools of their masters, 
and often obliged to remove to a sterile 
spot, after having improved, by their 
skill and industry, the land upon which 
they lived. The wages of the la- 
bourer were low, and, without occa- 
sional supplies from the monasteries 
or mansions by which they were em- 
ployed, would not have supplied the 
wants of nature. 

The villages were ill built, and con- 
tained only the farmers, with their 
labourers, who surrounded the palace 
of their lord, as dependent upon it. 
It is not customary to see houses scat- 
tered up and down, as in England ; 
and the eye is never relieved in wan- 
dering over the ground, by the sight 
of the gentlemen's beautiful seats, that 
give so great a richness to the English 



STATE OF FRANCE. J)3 

landscape. The fruits of the feudal 
system are still seen in all their force* 
On a certain tract of land, only one 
was chief; and as he feared the incur- 
sions of the neighbouring petty tyrants., 
he built his retreat like a fortress, sur- 
rounded it with a ditch, and called it 
his castle. The manor houses are 
still known by the name of chateaux> 
though most of them have lost the 
appearance of attack and defence, by 
which they were formerly distin- 
guished ; and as the vassals depended 
upon their lord, and were protected 
by him, their habitations were placed 
in the neighbourhood of his, trees 
were planted in considerable quan- 
tities to protect them from the wea- 
ther; and the country round, as 
far as his property extended, is one 
open plain, without house, hedge, or 
tree. The roads are cut through this 



94 ACCOUNT OF THE 

country in a direct course as by a ma- 
thematical line, and offer to the tra- 
veller the same uninteresting view for 
many miles together. 



STATE OF FRANCE. 95 



CHAPTER IX. 

Changes brought on by the French Revolution-^ 
The Characters that figured in it — Sufferings 
of the public Creditors — Miserable State of 
the Army — Patriotism of the Soldiers — Re~ 
novation and Successes under Buonaparte— 
—A Stop put to Revolutionary Measures* 

IF we examine the situation of the 
people now, we shall find it presents a 
very different appearance; and after so 
many, and such decisive changes, it 
would be a wonder if some parts of 
the picture were not improved. The 
boasted liberty which the French pre- 
tended to bring in their hands, like 
many other of the gaudy pageants of 
life, changed its complexion when 
brought nearer the sight. The con- 
vulsions of the departments extended 
to the conquered country ; every man 



<)6 ACCOUNT OF THE 

feared and distrusted his neighbour; 
a few of the dregs of the people, who 
had looked with a greedy eye on the 
opulence of the rich, willingly received 
the fraternal embrace of the sans cu- 
lottes, were raised to posts of honour, 
and in their drunken revels, planned 
out the division of the property of 
their towns. 

Fired with a zeal for liberty, they 
condemned every thing to the service 
of the state ; but, in their sober mo- 
ments, when the execution of their 
decisions took place, the loaded sieve 
did not travel up to Paris, without 
being well shaken on the road, and its 
best contents spilt out in the depart- 
ments. Many of their citizens are 
now clothed in purple and fine linen, 
who, at the. period of the revolution, 
were despised for their insignificance, 
or hated for their crimes. The pillage 
of the houses often furnished the means 



STATE OF FRANCE. 97 

of the purchase of the lands ; and the 
receiver of the public money, who 
before wouldnot have known where to 
look for his own, became the owner 
of a village, or the possessor of half a 
town ; and for many years, during the 
repeated changes of governors, little 
was known of the finances of the de- 
partments. The debts of the old go- 
vernors were transferred by treaty to 
the new, who engaged faithfully to dis- 
charge them : but, alas ! their servants 
so ill supplied their urgent necessities, 
that it was long before any proposal 
was made to reimburse the public cre- 
ditor, and then a small composition 
was offered, which many, though poor, 
Avould not consent to receive. The 
distress which arose among these men 
is not to be expressed; where they 
had little or no means of support, they 
were actually starving in their houses* 
The impudence of the beggar was not 

H 



98 • ACCOUNT OF THE 

calculated for their use ; their former 
respectability forbade it, or could they 
have summoned it to their aid, objects 
were now wanting to whom they might 
apply. Hearts that aredepraved and 
base, are rarely allied to bowels of 
compassion ; but such hearts had many 
of the new made rich. The monas- 
teries could no longer open their doors, 
to deliver out their weekly bread ; the 
greater part of the revenues of the 
hospitals, and houses of charity, were 
taken by the commissioners of the 
nation for its use ; and the people were 
in that dreadful state of confusion, 
that they knew not where to look for 
the morrow's supply. 

When therefore we hear the accounts 
of the military, respecting the state of 
the army during this dreadful time, it 
is past human calculation to make out 
what held it together, or how it was 
possible for the miserable soldiers to 



STATE OF FRANCE. 99 

remain faithful to their commanders. 
In many places, they were actually and 
truly sans culottes, and sans every thing 
else ; frequently obliged to march with- 
out shoes to their feet ; their clothes 
made of wretched materials, were soon 
worn off their backs ; with victuals 
barely enough to support nature, and 
which could give no bodily force. The 
pay of officers as well as men was in ar- 
rears, not for days and weeks only, but 
for months and quarters ; nevertheless, 
they remained steady in their ranks, and, 
with the eagerness of tygers, foraged, 
not in the barns of the living for the 
food of their body, but in the old 
churches and caverns of the dead, to 
collect saltpetre, that they might drive 
away the enemies of their country. 

Such was the state of things when 
Buonaparte was placed at the head of 
the army. He addressed his soldiers 
H 2 



10& ACCOUNT OF THE 

in some such words as these : — <€ I am 
sent by Providence to your rescue ; I 
see you now destitute of every thing, 
but that which is of itself capable of 
furnishing you with all. Your clothes 
are worn out; your skins are torn; 
your bodies half famished ; your pay 
in arrears ; but your spirits are not 
broken. Behold before you the rich, 
the luxuriant plains of Lombardy ; I 
will show you the passage into them. 
Follow me 5 and you shall want for 
nothing ! You shall be well clothed 
and fed ; and in three months I guaran- 
tee to you all the pay that is due from 
your ungrateful country ! 1: They fol- 
lowed him, and he kept his word. 

From that time the face of things 
began to change ; and France re- as- 
sumed its consequence in the political 
world. Without entering deeply into 
the history of the French revolutions^ 



STATE OF FRANCE. 101 

we may add, that once more it seemed 
likely to go back into anarchy and con- 
fusion, when the same great character 
unexpectedly returned from Egypt, 
seized the reins of government, and 
brought about that order of things 
which has since appeared in France, 
Public affairs then began to assume a 
tone ; the constituted authorities were 
made accountable to a higher power, 
and under the inspection of an eye that 
could soon discover their irregularities. 
The property that had been sold, 
could not be taken again; to have 
interfered with it, would have been 
to call in question the right of go- 
vernors to execute their own laws* 
and an act of injustice towards those 
who had risked their property upon the 
faith of the government. But a stop was 
immediately put to the hasty proceed- 
ings of revolutionary principles; and, 



102 ACCOUNT OT THE 

by degrees, a system of government 
was established, in which men can 
define the extent of their confidence, 
and use their industry as the means 
of their support. 



STATE OF FRANCE, 103 



CHAPTER X. 

Landed Property passed into other Hands — De- 
struction of the Woods and other Trees — Pil- 
lage of the public Property — Farmers become 
Proprietors of Land, and enrich themselves 
*— Registry of Estates and Duties on them 
— Towns impoverished — Appearance of the 
Country changed — Beggars — Charity given 
after Confession — Increased Price of Pro- 
visions. 

I HE landed property of the country 
had completely changed hands. It has 
already been observed, that one third 
of the terra jirmao? France belonged 
to the church. The whole of this had 
been confiscated ; and what had not 
been brought to the hammer was kept 
in the hands of commissioners for the 
service of government. They seem to 
have been particularly careful to pre- 



104 ACCOUNT OF THE 

serve the immense forests with which 
France abounds ; few of these had 
been sold, but their timbers had been 
felled in a most unmerciful manner, 
without distinction of- age, to be sent 
away to the ports and dock-yards. So 
strong was the frenzy for the fabrica- 
tion of a flotilla, that should carry ven- 
geance to the shores of England, that 
not the woods only were robbed of their 
pride, but even towns and villages were 
despoiled of their beautiful vistas and fa- 
vourite walks, and the ramparts of their 
shades, at once an ornament and a 
convenience to the inhabitants. But 
how frail is man, and how little fixed 
to his principles ! When the vapour of 
enthusiasm was passed, self-interest suc- 
ceeded in its place, and the greater 
part of these unreasonable sacrifices 
answered no other end than that of 
building private houses, or filling the 
stack-yards and fire-places of the com- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 105 

missioners. Many of the farmers had 
become in a short space of time pur- 
chasers of their own lands ; and the 
younger sons of families, who had but 
little to depend on, and especially those 
who had been bred to the law, procure 
ed landed property, and retired to re- 
side upon it. 

The old system of things had given 
support to an uncommon number of 
lawyers, advocates, and notaries; these 
were the homines d'affaires of the no- 
bility and clergy, and found the means 
of enriching themselves in the per- 
plexity of the law and the abundance 
of its statutes : but the new constitu- 
tion, founded on the simplest princi- 
ples, contained few laws, and gave 
them but little employment; and the 
constituent assembly, fearing that too 
large a body of counsellors would sow 
confusion, rather than maintain peace, 
amongst the people, limited their num- 



106 ACCOUNT OF THE 

ber, and allowed only a few to exer- 
cise their functions in a town. 

The man who by his labour can 
furnish to society the necessaries of 
life, will, in every troublesome and 
calamitous time, have an advantage of 
accumulating wealth which others do 
not enjoy. It is not therefore wonder- 
ful that the farmers increased their for- 
tunes rapidly, and added every year 
to their estates. The more stability 
the government acquired the more 
valuable the estates became ; and what 
had cost them in the outset a handful 
of money, amounted, in a few years, to 
an immense revenue. These had been, 
in the perpetual fluctuation of public 
affairs, which occasioned a cof respond- 
ing fluctuation of private property, 
divided and subdivided in a thousand 
forms, and it is now become a difficult 
matter to ascertain to whom some of 
them originally belonged. This change 



STATE OF FRANCE. 107 

of hands may be ascertained by a cir- 
cumstance worth mentioning : the 
sale of every estate, whether it be of 
land or house, is registered in the 
Bureau of the department, and a duty 
of five per cent, paid upon every such 
transfer to the whole amount of the 
purchase. Many cases are known of 
the property of which we are speak- 
ing having already paid forty per cent, 
duty; and if the receipts of a govern- 
ment did not revert to the people who 
pay them, by the natural revolution 
of the wheel, the whole would thus, in 
a certain term of years, be lost in the 
great gulf. 

We have already seen, that the 
wealth of the country was originally 
collected in the towns, while itself was 
always poor : the contrary of this is 
now become the fact ; the towns are 
comparatively poor, while the country 
retains the fruits of its industry, and 



108 ACCOUNT OF THE 

begins to assume a more gay and am 
mating appearance. Those towns 
which were not manufacturing, or those 
whose manufactures have declined in 
consequence of the war, of the former 
of which Mons may be given as an ex- 
ample, and Valenciennes of the latter, 
have had their resources greatly di- 
minished, and in a measure dried up : 
they are filled with beggars and with 
misery, and may well sigh for the re- 
turn of those days that they will never 
see again. 

The impudence of the beggars is 
much greater than is common in other 
countries ; they not only din the ears of 
the passengers in the streets with, "cha- 
rity for the love of God," and promise 
them a prayer to the Virgin for their 
health at the price of a sous, but they 
make a common practice of ringing 
or knocking at the doors as they stand 
in succession, and repeat their calls till 



STATE OF FRANCE. 109 

the tenants go out and send them away. 
Many of these are young women, and 
girls and boys in the full vigour of 
their health. The doors and the neigh- 
bourhood of the churches are perpetu- 
ally pestered by this rabble of ragged, 
dirty, lousy, aud drunken objects, 
that cannot excite our pity, because 
they are really criminal ones ; but they 
are accompanied also by the crippled, 
the blind, and the diseased. In the 
purlieus of God's house they present 
their addresses with the strongest pre- 
tensions; for charity is really thought, 
among that people, to cover a mul- 
titude of sins, and the absolution of 
the priest is then esteemed the most 
efficacious when it is followed by deeds 
of benevolence. After absolution they 
usually give to the poor ; and when a 
body is carried into the church to 
receive the holy aspersion and the 
benediction of the priest, money is 



110 ACCOUNT OF THE 

given at the door, or at their own 
houses. 

There are not only fewer houses of 
charity and periodical benefactions 
since the revolution, but the entire 
stagnation of commerce, which every 
town, even the most interior, feels to 
a certain degree, renders it difficult for 
the poor to get work ; add to this, 
that provisions of every kind are risen 
to a very great price within the last 
three years ; since the year 1 802 
they are nearly doubled. Many cir- 
cumstances may have contributed to 
this. 

The taxes have been more than 
tripled since the entrance of the French 
into the country ; their wealth has 
been drawn away to the metropolis 
of France, and a considerable part of 
it lost for ever. The commerce which 
used to be considerable with Holland 
and England, has been annihilated by 



STATE OF FRANCE. Ill 

the severe ordinances of Napoleon. 
The manufactured goods which they 
would buy from other countries are 
forbidden to enter theirs, and the pro- 
duce of their land and of its bowels 
confined within the limits of their own 
territory. The circulating medium is 
small ; no paper money of any descrip- 
tion is found in the departments ; the 
farmers are become independent, and 
are able to give, in some degree, the 
law to the markets ; and a middle set 
of men have lately sprung up in the 
country, who, by making the produce 
of the land an article of trade, feed the 
markets, or hold back the grain, as 
circumstances may be favourable or 
otherwise. Besides which, their manu- 
factures have never yet assumed any 
vigour ; they are conducted on a small 
scale, with capitals often inadequate 
to their demand. The minute division 
of labour, which may be estimated the 



112 ACCOUNT OF THE 

very soul of manufactures, and which 
enables the English to outdo every 
other nation, is not yet generally 
adopted there. There is nothing but 
vegetables that can be deemed cheap 
in France ; for, though other things 
are a little lower than in England, 
yet the resources of the industrious 
part of the nation are so scanty, and 
their pay so small, that they are in 
fact much dearer to the buyer than 
the same articles are, under similar cir- 
cumstances, in England. To this 
should be added, that manufactured 
goods are either much worse or much 
dearer than here : so that, although 
the tradesman has a smaller amount of 
taxes to pay in France, there is little 
doubt that he has a better chance of 
improving his fortune in England, 
under all the burdens of government,, 
than he would have in France, with 
the same prudence to direct his affairs. 



STATE OF FRANCE, 113 

The difficulty which the middling and 
lower classes of men experience of 
living is very great, and their com- 
plaints are loud and unceasing. 



114 ACCOUNT OF THE 



CHAPTER XL 

Taxes : — on Wines , Spirits, and Beer ; — on 
Property, Cards, Stamps, Mortgages ; — on 
Land, Windozos, and Doors ; — on manufac- 
tured and prHnted Goods ; — on Posting— 
Liberty of Speech-*- Ac count of Buona- 
parte's Privy Council — His Irritability — 
■ — Liberty of the Press — Newspapers — Sud- 
den Disappearance of some Men in Paris. 

HOWEVER Buonaparte may detest 
England as a rival, lie has seen that the 
ingenuity of Mr. P. is well worthy of 
imitation, in the grand art of extract- 
ing money from the pockets of the 
people, and is actually following him, in 
some of those steps, which are the most 
grievous and oppressive to the subject. 
Wines, spirits, and beer, are subject to 
heavy duties. Property is taxed, though 
not in exactlv the same way : licenses 



STATE OF FRANCE. 115 

forthe sale of almost every thing must 
be taken out, and a special license for 
the sale of tobacco and gunpowder. 
Of late, in order to derive a large 
revenue from the diversions of the sub- 
jects, the apparatus for the printing of 
cards has been taken into the keeping 
of the public officers, that none may be 
sold without being first duly stamped. 
Two-pence half-penny was the price of 
a pack of cards six months ago, but now 
they are not to be bought for less than 
half a crown. This seizure of the appa- 
ratus for card -making was made by the 
receiver of the stamp duties, without 
any public law having passed, or notice 
having been given to the people. 

The revenues arising from stamps 
are immense ; every thing of a public 
nature, even the processes at law, 
which are to appear in the court, and 
from which counsellors are to plead ; 
and all addresses to the public au- 



116 ACCOUNT OF THE 

thorities must be on stamps ; as must 
also every page of the ledger of a man 
of business, if he mean to ^employ it 
as a document to prove his debts. 
Every mortgage is registered at the 
stamp-office, and a large duty paid 
upon it. This is a regulation which 
furnishes great advantages to the coun- 
try at large ; for a man cannot de- 
ceive another by taking a second mort- 
gage on his* estate while the first is 
unpaid, as it can always be known by 
applying to the office what mortgage 
lies at that time upon it. In every 
■department is a stamp-office and re- 
gistry of the sales and mortgages of 
estates, where ordinary stamps are 
distributed and extra ones may be pro- 
cured ; foT an unstamped deed may be 
rendered legal by being stamped after- 
wards, and a triple duty paid. 

They have taxes on land, on win- 
dows, and on doors, a tax on persons, 



STATE OF FRANCE. iff 

or annual poll tax, together with one 
on the furniture of their houses. Be- 
sides these, many manufactured and 
printed goods pay a duty; and the 
post-horse work and turnpikes bring 
in a large revenue. The post-houses 
are stationed at regular distances on 
every public road ; no other than these 
are allowed to let post-horses, and, 
for the exclusive privilege, they pay a 
handsome acknowledgment to the go- 
vernment. 

We have said> that the people's com- 
plaints are loud ; nor let it be ima- 
gined, that they are afraid of finding 
fault with the government, or sus- 
picious that their neighbours should 
denounce them as hostile to the state. 
There is not a greater liberty of speech 
in England, either in private company, 
or in public houses, than there is in 
France, relative to the proceedings 
of their rulers! Without speaking of 



MS ACCOUNT OF THE 

friendly parties, in which conversation 
must every where be free, political 
subjects are freely discussed in taverns 
and clubs ; and no one seems afraid 
to declare his disapprobation of public 
measures. If any thing personal tran- 
spire in that country, as well as in this, 
a man would run the risk of being 
called to order, and in perhaps a 
similar way ; for it amounts to about 
the same thing, whether a habeas cor- 
pus act has no existence, or whether 
it can be set aside on every pretended 
emergency. 

There is an essential difference, in 
the opinion to be formed of the ar- 
rangements made and adopted by the 
two governments. Our constitution 
holds the king to be free from guilt; 
and charges all the imperfections of 
government upon his ministers, as 
upon the counsellors and agents of the 
king ; there, the ministers are the in- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 119 

strum ents of their chief, and do only 
as he directs. The manner in which 
the important decisions of Buonaparte 
are formed, is as follows : — When he 
has some expedition to send out, some 
new tax to impose, or some general 
measure to adopt, he calls his council, 
which is known to be composed of the 
greatest characters in France. He has 
found out the means of attaching men 
of all parties to his interest : he does not 
ask whether they are protestants, or 
catholics ; whether they were the par- 
tizans of the late king, or of avowed 
republican, principles : whether they 
had sided with the Brissotines, with 
the party of Robespierre, or with the 
tactions that afterwards ruled the re- 
public. All party distinctions have 
been evidently se;t out of the question; 
and his only object has been, to unite 
men the most celebrated for their in- 
formation, their depth of thought, or 



120 ACCOUNT OF THU 

their experience in the affairs of states 
and of empires. 

If the past lives of the privy coun- 
sellors of Napoleon were examined, 
and contrasted, it would be found that 
they form the most motley crew that 
ever assembled to discuss a political 
question. But that is of no conse- 
quence ; they are men of considerable 
sagacity, and he wants them only for 
advice. These he calls together, tells 
them he has such an object in view, 
requests to know their opinions of its 
success, and the best means of exe- 
cuting it ; and desires them to give 
him their sentiments on a certain day. 
On that day he meets them again, hears 
what each of them has to say, suffers 
the question to be fully discussed be- 
fore him, and retires to decide upon 
his measures. That done, his secretary 
is set to work ; and no one knows his 
determination, till the affair has actu- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 121 

ally taken place. He is therefore the 
prime mover in all the affairs of the 
French empire; and to him alone ac- 
crues the credit of their success, 05 
the dishonour of their failure. 

The subordinate affairs of state must 
necessarily be regulated by inferior in- 
struments ; but all the main springs 
are directed by himself. It will not 
appear surprising, that a man who 
bears perpetually so much upon his 
mind should be irritable and passion- 
ate. If he were not quick, it would 
be impossible for him to get through 
his work ; and great characters have 
always some blemish that serves to 
take off the brilliancy of their splendid 
talents. Buonaparte discovers extreme 
irritability, if opposed in any favourite 
scheme ; or if his orders be not exe- 
cuted with great rapidity. ^ He not 
unfrequently uses the coup de pied for 
his argumentum ad hominem> upon 



122 ACCOUNT OF THE 

those who attend about his person ; 
and even, it has been said, upon his 
confidential secretary ; so that they 
who are near him, are in a continual 
trepidation when any thing has ruf- 
fled his temper. At other times, as is 
usual with such characters, he is per- 
fectly familiar and pleasant, and be- 
comes their companion. 

The liberty of the press in France is 
not equal to the liberty of speech ; its 
consequences are more fatally extensive, 
and may with greater ease be prevent- 
ed. It has been long forbidden to cir- 
culate English newspapers in France ; 
and it may be presumed, that the ex- 
tracts taken from them by the Moni- 
teur and other papers are so mutilated as 
not to bear a similarity to the originals. 
No newspaper can be published in th6 
country without the MS. being first ex- 
amined by the prefet or some other per- 
son whom he appoints ; and no book- 



STATE OF FRANCE, 123 

seller dare expose to sale any books of 
a licentious nature, or dangerous politi- 
cal tendency, under the dread of a do- 
miciliary visit, and consequent a.rres- 
tation and imprisonment 

There have been some instances at 
Paris of the sudden disappearance of 
men, who have not been heard of after, 
and who, it is supposed, have been 
concealed by order of iiuonaparte. 
Tins was the case a few months 
ago of a person of respectable fa- 
mily, and large commercial concerns, 
who, on his return home oiie evening to 
Paris, disappeared, and .vas never seen 
again. About the sanle time a gentle- 
man, who was onav it to the metropolis 
from one of the departments, had sent 
his linen to the washerwoman's, but 
having occasion for some of it, called 
upon her, and by chance saw the mark 
of a friend's shirt which was in the 
house. He asked whence she had 



124 ACCOUNT OF THE 

fetched it, and was thunder-struck 
at the answer, " from the prison of 
— ! — ." He endeavoured to get a sight 
of his friend, but was refused; audit was 
not till after many weeks that he suc- 
ceeded i n convincing the minister th at h is 
friend had been arrested through mis- 
take in the place of another, and was 
perfectly innocent of the political faux- 
pas of which he was believed to have 
been guilty. This gentleman had been 
some months in prison, and might 
have died there but for the fortunate 
discovery of his friend. 



STATE OF FRANCE. 125 



CHAPTER XII. 

Particular Account of the Conscription— Regis- 
try of Births and Deaths, 

THERE is yet a source of grief of 
which the conquered countries com- 
plain most bitterly* It is the cruel and 
heart-rending law of the conscription ; 
which requires the inhabitants to part 
with their sons when arrived at the age 
of manhood, to fight the battles of a 
power they hate, and to die for a man 
whose government they abominate. 
Under their old emperor, soldiers were 
raised by recruiting, and the widowed 
mother might solace herself in the ad- 
vancing years of her son, who was to 
be the prop and father of her family ; 
but now she looks with terror to the 
age of twenty-one, as to the arrival of 
a tempest that will sweep away all her 



1£6 ACCOUNT OF THE 

hopes. The execution of the con- 
script laws is very rigid, the demand 
for men having been so great that sup- 
plies cannot be met with without dif- 
ficulty, and at great expense, and go- 
vernment is not easily pleased in the 
replacement of a strong well made 
young man. 

Every child that is born in France 
must be carried to the town house 
within twenty -four hours after its birth, 
to be registered, and in order that the 
officer may ascertain its sex by inspec- 
tion. For a trifling fee he will take 
his register to the parent's house, if 
the child be ill,, or he desired to do 
so. Every death must likewise be re- 
gistered at the town-house; or, if it 
happen in a village, at the office of the 
mayor of that village. And as the 
state acknowledges no distinction in 
its subjects when born, so also it 
knows none after their death, but ap- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 1£7 

points a common burial place without 
the town, where all have an equal right 
to inter, and may use their different 
rites and ceremonies as they please. 

Besides the registers of births and 
deaths, there is a correct statement of 
the population made out every year by 
the police officer, and no one can come 
into a city or township without its be- 
ing known to the police, who wait 
upon him to inquire whence lie comes, 
and whether he is the bearer of a regu- 
lar passport. In this way the exact 
population of the country is ascertain- 
ed, and the number in every town is 
known. Xo register is admitted but 
that which is taken from the public 
books ; and, as a full right of citizen- 
ship exists, the state asks no question 
about the baptism or non-baptism of its 
children, nor whether they are catho- 
lics, protestants, or Jews, bat ascer- 
tains and preserves with equal care the 



128 ACCOUNT OF THE 

accounts of their births and deaths. 
The convenience of this regulation, as 
it relates to succession, is evident, t>ut 
that is not the principal object the 
government has in view in inscribing 
so carefully the ages of the subjects. 
The important point gained is, to be 
able to ascertain when their young men 
were born, and when their turn is 
come to reader their country a per- 
sonal service. It is not possible for any 
to escape ; for if they are absent from 
home, on whatever pretence, or in 
whatever country, at the time of their 
coming of age, they must appear to 
take their chance with the rest, or their 
parents will be subject to very heavy 
penalties. 

The minister of war makes his 
annual report, to the minister of the 
interior, of the number of young- 
men wanted for the ensuing year. 
The minister divides this number 



STATE OF FRANCE. 1£9 

according to the population of the 
departments ; the prefets divide it 
again by the population of the district; 
and the districts divide it between the 
towns and communes, in the same pro- 
portion. All the young men of the 
age of twenty-one are required to be 
present at the drawing. If they have 
any natural defect, be it ever so small, 
they are not called upon; but, as 
every one must bear his proportion 
in the defence of his country, the pa- 
rents of those who do not draw lots pay 
three times the amount of their taxes 
for that year, as a recompense for the 
personal services of their children. If 
they are poor, and pay no taxes, they 
are exempted altogether, on the ground 
of incapacity. 

Among the young men are often 
some who have an inclination ; to be 
soldiers. They draw the first, and, if 
the lot does not fall on them, they 

K 



130 JlCCOUNT of the 

take other men's chances for a sum of 
money agreed upon, and may happen 
to draw three or four billets before they 
take hold of the fatal one. What ren- 
ders it peculiarly difficult to replace a 
man, is, tlflat none can be received as 
substitutes but those of the same year, 
and perfectly free from defect. The 
prefet and the gendarmes are present 
to regulate the drawing, and it is in 
their power to let any escape whom 
they are inclined to favour. At the 
drawing at Amiens, for the year twelve, 
four young men of respectable families^ 
who were students at Paris in music 
and drawing, came down to take their 
chance with the rest. A respectable 
physician, at whose house the writer 
was on a visit, made out attestations of 
imbecility and disease, and, the gend- 
armes being previously gained over, 
they were rejected when they presented 
themselves to draw the lot; being told, 



STATE OF FRANCE. 131 

that men like them, with natural in- 
firmities, were not fit persons to be re- 
ceived into the army. 

Those who are fortunate enough to 
escape in the drawing, are not liable to 
be called upon any more, except the 
new conscripts desert before they ar- 
rive at the army, in which case others 
must supply their places. If there hap- 
pen an extraordinary demand, more 
than can be supplied out of the con- 
scription of the year, a demand is made 
in advance upon the succeeding year, 
that is, upon the youth of twenty, and 
some of them are taken before they 
would be liable to serve in the regular 
course of the law. The time of service 
is limited to six y#ars; but a military 
power, in the time of war, does not 
scruple to detain them eight or ten 
years, or even more. The number of 
troops required, the dread of losing 
their lives in a foreign land) and the 
k2 



132 ACCOUNT OF THE 

extreme difficulty of finding substi- 
tutes, make the price of them very 
high. Of late years it has mount- 
ed up to a hundred pounds, but the 
more common price is about forty or 
fifty. Let it, however, be remember- 
ed, that these are large sums in com- 
parison of the same in our country. 
In this way were our ancestors served 
by the Romans in the time of their 
greatness, and this will be the liberty 
their descendants will enjoy, if ever 
they become associated to the military 
state of France ; our sons will be called 
away to fight its battles abroad, and 
our industry will supply the luxury of 
its capital. 

Under these views of the actual si- 
tuation of the ancient province of Hain- 
ault, and of the Low Countries, is 
it surprising, that the people should 
sigh for the return of their emperor, 



STATE OF FRANCE. 133 

or that they opened their ears with rap- 
ture when a continental alliance was 
first talked of? They regarded our 
premier as the best friend to the in- 
terests of their country, because in him. 
they hoped to find the deliverer, of 
Europe. 



134 ACCOUNT OF THE 



CHAPTER XIII. 

General Impression in France respecting Buo- 
naparte . — His Visit to the Departments, 
particularly to that of Jemappes — His In- 
consistency with respect to Manufactures—* 
Accounts of Manufactures. 

AFTER the many revolutions which 
the French have experienced, and the 
perpetual scenes of confusion and 
bloodshed in which they have been in- 
volved for many years in succession, 
with a complete overthrow of public 
order and public credit, they certainly 
regarded Buonaparte as the saviour of 
their country. They acknowledge in 
him great qualities, and an extensive 
acquaintance with the affairs of their 
country; and above all, that prudent 
and firm conduct which has imposed 
silence upon the factions that had di- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 133 

vided them before. And though the 
majority are less satisfied with him in 
the character of emperor, than they were 
when he bore the name of consul, they 
had rather the present state of affairs 
should continue as it is; than to be ex- 
posed to fresh changes and new revolu- 
tions. The close and scrupulous at- 
tention which he has personally paid 
to public affairs, has reconciled them, 
in a great degree, to him in the capa- 
city of a sovereign. He has manifest- 
ed this in the excursions that he has 
made at different times into the depart- 
ments, not for the sake of gratifying 
an idle curiosity, or to display an useless 
pomp, but to see and to know his new 
subjects. 

Notwithstanding the more important 
business of state, which has relation to 
foreign courts, appears to be managed 
by the emperor himself, yet is lie so 
attentive to the concerns of the de~ 



136 ACCOUNT OF THE 

partments as to enter into all their mi- 
nutiae. Take, as an example, what oc- 
curred at Mons, on his visit in 1803. 
He received the different bodies of men 
in their turn, and conversed particu- 
larly with each of them ; and it seemed, 
by his manner of addressing them, 
that he had no need of bcin«; informed 
of any thing they had to say. He told 
the bishop, who acknowledged that his 
clergy were not very well satisfied, that 
they had every reason to be so, for 
that so much per annum was paid out. 
of the public pursd to the bishopriek, •. 
which was so much to each curate. 

He discovered, what was, perhaps, the 
grand object of his visits, in talking 
with the director-general of the coal-i 
pits, and afterwards with the receiver. 
Coals pay a certain duty upon being 
drawn up out of the ground. Buona- 
parte inquired the number of pits at 
work, and the quantity of coals they 



STATE OF PRANCE. 137 

would produce per week. He calcu- 
lated to himself in a moment the whole 
produce of the pits, and asked the di- 
rector whether the proprietors would 
be willing to sell the mines to govern- 
ment for a sum of money, which he 
mentioned, and which exceeded what 
they were estimated at. The director 
replied, " No." — " I believe you," said 
he, ic but I will give you the double of 
that;" to which he replied, that he be- 
lieved the proprietors would not be 
willing to part with them. " No," said 
Buonaparte, " but government ought to 
derive from these pits a much larger 
revenue than it actually does;" and 
he intimated that they might ex- 
pect a considerable increase of their 
taxes. 

He told the prefet that the depart- 
ment must be taxed higher, and when 
that officer complained of their being 
poor, Buonaparte replied, Ci If you are 



133 ACCOUNT OF THJt 

poor it is your own fault, for you have 
every thing but industry to make you 
rich;" and he added, that every de- 
partment ought to be taxed according 
to its ability. He seemed to have a 
minute acquaintance with every sub- 
ject that came before him : and rarely 
did an officer present himself, who had 
been with him in any of his campaigns, 
bat he recognized him, and could tell 
In what corps he had served,, and ia 
what battle he had fought. 

He has betrayed the greatest incon- 
sistency with respect to the manufac- 
tories. When he became consul he 
issued out his edicts for the encourage- 
ment of national industrv, wrote let- 
ters to the prefets, recommending the 
interests of manufactures to their at- 
tention, ordered a number of convents > 
in different parts of the country, to 
be given free of rent, or at a rent so 
tow as amounted barely to an acknovv- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 139 

kdgment of their continuing the pro- 
perty of the public, directed an annual 
collection and public exhibition to be 
made of the choicest articles they could 
produce, ordained prizes for the most 
expert mechanics and manufacturers, 
visited them often, and seemed to take 
a personal interest in what the workmen 
were doing. Time has, however, given 
us reason to believe, that all this mighty 
parade was no more than a blind to the 
eyes of the people, and a cover for his 
real designs. Celebrated men in the 
manufacturing line, who formerly were 
consulted and courted by the consul, 
are now scarcely spoken to by his mi- 
nisters; and it is not long since Tally- 
rand replied to a celebrated English me- 
chanic, who had obtained the prize for 
the spinning of cotton, " Don't let 
me bear any more about your manufac- 
tures ; I wish there were none of them 
in the republic/' Great exertions were 



140 ACCOUNT OF THE 

made by order of Buonaparte, for a 
time, to encourage them ; but finding 
that the people had not a true manu- 
facturing spirit, and did not get for- 
ward equal to his expectations, he be- 
came weary of the pursuit, or, perhaps, 
found his thoughts absorbed on sub- 
jects of greater consequence. In fact, 
having declared himself pretty plainly 
the chief of a military government, he 
naturally thinks the less of civil affairs. 
The manufactories of France, in ge- 
neral, are in a very low state ; and most 
of the English, who, encouraged by 
the flattering promises of the consul, 
had established them in the republic, 
have been grievously disappointed. 
There are very few articles in which 
they excel. .Their glass, and especially 
the cut-glass, is wrought in a superior 
style; the porcelain of Paris is no where 
to be excelled ; some japan work has 
been lately brought to a state of 



STATE OF FRANCE. 141 

high perfection; their fine woollen 
cloths have always been renowned, and 
their linens, of the best sorts particu- 
larly, are esteemed all over the world : 
but their iron and steel works are, in ge- 
neral, very defective, and their polish 
is bad. 

The common woollen cloths and ho- 
siery are ill executed, because they 
are ill spun, and, of cotton articles, 
though great exertions have been made 
to improve them, they have hardly 
anv that are fit to use. The English 
cottons both for men and women's 
wear, are as much esteemed in that 
country as in this ; and if good ones 
are to be bought there, they must have 
come from England ; for although 
large quantities are manufactured in 
France, and many new fabricks have 
been established since the peace of 
Amiens, they have not produced any 
yet that can compare with ours. Many 



142 ACCOUNT OF THE 

causes contribute to this. The want 
of capital induces them to buy the in- 
ferior cottons ; they are not capable of 
making a good thread of them, and, 
therefore, if the workmen were good, 
they could not make a good article. 
But their spinning is also imperfect. 
Englishmen have introduced the spin- 
ning machines into France, but being 
as yet little accustomed to their use, 
the people do not derive a proper ad- 
vantage from them. Besides this, 
there is not a manufacturing spirit 
among the people. Satisfied with small 
possessions, and requiring but little to 
live in independence, it never can en- 
ter a Frenchman's head that a man who 
has thousands will venture those thous- 
ands in search of more. And, if he 
has been persuaded to risk a few 
hundreds in a manufacturing adven- 
ture, he begins to think his money 
lost if he do not receive his interest 



STATE OF FRANCE. 143 

in a few months, or, perhaps, in as 
many weeks. Money is at an exorbi- 
tant interest; one per cent, per month 
is often paid, and little is lent under 
eight or ten per cent, per annum. The 
scarcity of the circulating medium is 
so great in the departments, and even in 
the great commercial towns, and the 
old resources have so much disappeared, 
that a sufficient encouragement cannot 
be given to the mechanic to finish his 
work. He must offer it at a low price 
if he expect it to be sold, and con- 
sequently must bestow less labour up- 
on it, or work it up from inferior ma- 
terials. 

Improvements cannot be expected un- 
der such disadvantages as these, and the 
articles which they make must remain in 
the same low state of advancement. 
The articles manufactured in straw have 
risen to a high degree of perfection in 



144 ACCOUNT OF THE 

our country, and are deemed sufficient^ 
ly elegant for the wear of the most 
fashionable and most genteel of our 
ladies ; and yet we are indebted to the 
French for the invention, the best of 
whose works would be despised by our 
warehousemen. 

Whether the trade originated among 
the shepherds of Switzerland, or in the 
villages of the bishopric of Liege, seems 
to be a doubtful question ; in both these 
places it has been known from time im- 
memorial. Many thousands are con- 
stantly employed at the work; it is done 
in the same way as at Dunstable, and 
the price of labour is extremely low, and 
yet their best work is scarcely tolerable; 
and the little that is good, which has 
cost more time and pains to prepare, 
will not fetch a price proportioned to its 
worth. The article is in esteem, but 
must be sold so low, that the poor 



STATE 6F FRANCE. 145 

cottager is not paid for her extra care- 
ful labour; therefore the* work must 
be done quick, and consequently ill. 
The same is true of most other articles 
of general consumption. 



146 ACCOUNT OF THE 



CHAPTER XIV. 

English manufactured Goods in great Esteem — 
Smuggling — Custom-House Officers— Treaty 
of Commerce. 

A HE low countries, in general^ have 
suffered great inconvenience from the 
interruption of their commerce with 
England. They have been always ac- 
customed to English merchandise, par- 
ticularly cottons of every description. 
Nothing valuable has been exhibited in 
their warehouses, nothing recommend- 
ed by their tradesmen, but what has 
been the fruit of English ingenuity. — 
For some time past the laws have been 
so strict against English manufactures, 
thatit has been dangerous to have them in 
the house. Domiciliary visits have been 
made at different times by the soldiery, 
and all articles, supposed to be English, 



STATE OF FRANCE. 147 

have been taken away and confiscated. 
Now, as the English goods have al- 
ways been the most in repute, they 
have been imitated as nearly as possible 
by the French artists, and much of 
their work has been sold at the price 
of English ; the consequence of which 
has been, that large quantities of 
their own manufactures have been 
seized and condemned by the ignorant 
satellites of an ill-informed government, 
because they bore the resemblance of 
foreign ; but these measures have not 
been sufficient to prevent the smug- 
gling of them into the interior. 

A contraband trade has been kept up 
along the banks of the Rhine, and the 
frontiers of Holland, to a very consi- 
derable extent. Buonaparte is well aware 
that commerce and manufactures are as 
the life and soul of the British nation ; 
and he knows that his subjects are not 
patriotic enough to refuse paying their 
t % 



348 account or the 

money away for a good article that 
comes from an enemy's market ; but 
he has sworn perdition to the English 
trade. He satisfied himself for awhile 
with issuing strong prohibitory laws, 
and posting a thick cordon of custom- 
house officers along his frontiers ; but, 
finding these insufficient, he directed, a 
few months ago, that the merchants 
who were known to hold commercial 
relations with England should be ar- 
rested, and their papers examined. — 
This gave rise to the discovery of 
others; and many were made prisoners, 
particularly those who lived on the 
frontiers, and who were the chief instru- 
ments in the unlawful trade. One of 
these observed, not long since, " we 
" could bear the occasional loss of pur 
" property, but now it is come to the 
" prise de corps, we must desist ;" which 
many accordingly did. Notwithstand- 
ing, however, all this, the smuggling 



STATE OF FRANCE, l4g 

trade is carried on to a verv sjreat ex- 
tent, and there is no actual want of any 
article of British workmanship. This is 
chiefly done by the villages that lie on 
the borders of Holland, the laws of 
which having been hitherto much less 
rigid, have allowed the channel to re- 
main open for a supply of English mer- 
chandise. These villages are sometimes 
visited by a detachment of French 
troops, who, in violation of all law, and 
under no other pretence than that they 
know the inhabitants to be smugglers, 
have entered their houses, seized upon 
their property, and carried off to the 
amount of ten or twelve waggon loads 
at a time. Though the risk in this 
trade is great, the gain is esteemed to 
be sure ; for so high are these goods in 
the estimation of the people, that they 
will bear an advance of forty per cent. 
before they are disposed of by the niter- 



150 ACCOUNT OF THE 

chant for retail sale. Perhaps they are 
now still higher. 

An army of custom-house officers are 
kept on the frontiers of the empire to 
prevent the entry of contraband goods* 
Custom-houses are built at small dis- 
tances from one another, several being 
under the direction of one chief, and 
their officers are perpetually out on the 
watch. They are all taken from the in- 
terior of France, and are picked men, tall, 
strong, and alert. Their manner of life 
is hard: they seldom sleep in a bed ; most 
of them indeed have none. They are out 
by night as well as b}^ day on the wild 
heath or other places where the smug- 
glers are expected to pass, with dogs, 
who are generally more watchful than 
themselves. When a poor fellow is 
taken with his load, he is condemned 
to three months' imprisonment ; the se- 
cond time to three years at thegallies ; 



STATE OF FRANCE. 151 

and the third to the gallies for life. The 
half of the seizure becomes the proper- 
ty of the officer, and only one sixth 
goes into the public purse, the rest be- 
ing appropriated for the general ex- 
penses of the customs. 

It is principally cotton goods, tobac- 
co, and the produce of the West India 
Isles, that are smuggled into France. 
Sheets of tin are also much in request, 
and at an enormous price ; for there is 
not on the French territory a single 
person who can fabricate them : 
many attempts have been made, but 
all have miscarried. In truth, al- 
though the bringing: down the higher 
orders has raised the merchant and the 
manufacturer to the pinnacle of conse- 
quence, yet, since that period, there 
has not been sufficient stability and: 
confidence in the public affairs, to 
give birth to that degree of credit which 



152 ACCOUNT OF THE 

is necessary to the success of an in- 
dustrious nation. 

This confidence seems to be gradually 
returning : a proof of it is seen in the 
national domains, which have risen in 
value nearly to a par with the patrimo- 
nial estates. It will not, however, be 
possible for the greatest exertions of 
patriotism, either in individuals or in 
the state, to bring the manufactories 
of France into competition with the 
English for a considerable time. The 
people at large are sensible of this, and 
ardently desire a treaty of commerce, 
by which an interchange of articles 
might be allowed. Such an intercourse 
would certainly conduce to the best in- 
terests of both nations ; though, in 
point of advantage, it would turn the 
balance greatly in favour of this coun- 
try, because the articles they want from 
us are so much more numerous and ex- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 153 

pensive than those we should have oc- 
casion to buy from them. It has been 
said that the emperor is sensible of 
this, and will not, on any consideration, 
agree to a treaty of commerce withEng-. 
land. A dismal prospect for the lover 
of peace, who knows the obstinacy of 
his disposition, and the force of his 
arms ; for the army of France was 
perhaps never in so formidable a state 
as it is at present, nor ever under the 
direction of so skilful or so stubborn 
a head. 



154 ACCOUNT OF THE 



CHAPTER XV. 

Legion of Honour— Subordination of the Army 
— Account of the Leapers — Buonaparte's 
Tactics — Garrison Towns — Barracks — Quar- 
tering in private Houses — Punishments — 
Galley Prisoners — Guillotine. 

THE establishment of the Legion of 
Honour, by which the Emperor has 
created a new species of nobility, has 
been the means of spreading his parti- 
zans and supporters over the whole 
face of the republic. This institution 
seemed originally to have been intend- 
ed as a recompensef or the soldiers 
who liad signalized themselves in the 
revolutionary wars. At a very early 
period, it was solemnly promised by the 
National Assembly, that those who 
survived the establishment of the li- 
berty and tranquility of their country, 



STATE OF FRANCE. 155 

should have a part of the landed pro- 
perty which had heen taken from the 
emigrants against whom tliev were to 
fight; and Buonaparte renewed this pro- 
mise when he came into power. He 
gave, therefore, the stars at first to 
the officers and soldiers: to the former, 
whose services had been signal, the 
gold star ; and to those of Jess note, 
the silver one : but as he judged that 
others had deserved well of their coun- 
try, who had not served in its armies, 
he included a number in the legion who 
were not soldiers ; and afterwards 
thought fit to add all the prefets, bi- 
shops, and presidents of the tribunals, 
many mayors of towns, and others who 
had distinguished themselves as his 
friends. The legion is divided into 
companies, and every company has a 
portion of landed property made over 
to it, with a steward and secretary, 
whose business is to inspect their lands, 



156 ACCOUNT OF THE 

and pay them their annual dues. The 
private receives two hundred and fifty 
livres per annum, the superiors a much 
more handsome annuity ; and, at their 
death, other persons are appointed by 
the emperor to succeed in their room. 
The star, or cross, as it is sometimes 
called, resembles exactly the cross of 
St. Louis, the badge of a distinguished 
order under the French monarchy, and 
is somewhat broader than a shilling, 
with a small medallion of Napoleon 
in the centre, and eight rays issuing 
around it : it is tied with a red riband, 
and fastened to the middle button-hole 
of the coat. 

The subordination of the French 
army, and the good behaviour of its 
men, are the subjects of commendation 
in France. The police is so well regu- 
lated, by the means of the gendarmerie, 
that it is almost impossible for a cri- 
minal of any class to escape cletec- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 157 

tion. Deserters from their army, and 
especially the young conscripts who 
are forced against their will into the 
service of government, are seldom 
long before they are brought back to 
the corps to which they had been join- 
ed. In order to prevent desertion, they 
are kept as much as possible at a dis- 
tance from the department for which 
they serve. The conscripts of the low 
countries are sent to the southern de- 
partments, and the young men of Pied- 
mont are placed on the northern bound- 
ary of the empire. 

When a large army is collected on 
one spot, soldiers from all directions 
are to be found among them. The 
military are well cloathed, and provid- 
ed with arms ; their horse soldiers, 
and particularly the Cuirassiers, who 
have a breast-plate of brass, and a back 
piece of the same, make a truly respec- 
table and martial appearance. It cannot 



158 ACCOUNT OF THE 

be doubted that the troops who accom- 
pany the emperor in his tours are a 
handsome body of men, and that their of- 
ficer's, in particular, are dressed with a 
distinguished elegance. It is not the cus- 
tom with them to wear powder; they are 
mostly cropped ; and their whiskers, 
which are always allowed to grow as 
long and as large as they will, give 
them a formidable look. The ladies of 
the Continent do not seem to object to 
the manly appearance of the whiskers, 
which were borrowed from the Ger- 
mans, though perhaps our English 
women might fancy something dirty 
and savage in the hair curling- round 
the upper lip, and coming almost into 
the mouth. 

The French have some battalions 
of troops unlike any that we know : 
they are called Leapers, and are trained 
to the greatest agility and skill in cor- 
poreal movements : they accompany a 



STATE OF FRATsTCE. 159 

corresponding number of cavalry in- 
to the field, whose horses are accus- 
tomed to carry double, and not to start 
when a man leaps up behind the rider. 
Their evolutions are made with wonder- 
ful rapidity ; they gallop away to the 
place where they are required to act, 
and immediately the Leapers jump 
down, form themselves into a line of 
battle behind the horses, and become 
a separate army. When their orders 
are executed, or they meet with a re- 
pulse, they jump up again, each be- 
hind his companion, and are carried 
off in safety to another place. It may 
well be conceived of what wonderful 
service these battalions must be to a 
General like Buonaparte, who is pre- 
sent to command m his battles, and 
who retains, in the midst of carnage 
and confusion, the most perfect pre- 
sence of mind, and has a perception of 
every favourable occurrence in the clay 



160 ACCOUNT OF THE 

of battle. A contempt of the old mili- 
tary tactics, and a facility of improving 
these occurrences, have hitherto given 
him an advantage over the distinguish- 
ed Generals of his day, who have been 
governed by a system in which all the 
accidents of war cannot be calculated. 

Every garrison town is provided with 
barracks, which are built large and 
strong, where the soldiers, who are in 
garrison, are always lodged. If their 
numbers be greater than they will hold, 
and they are not encamped, every 
housekeeper is required to furnish to his 
quota of men, a bed, a fire to cook 
their victuals, and the utensils neces- 
sary for that purpose. The army of 
reserve, destined for the invasion of 
England, was long stationed at Amiens, 
and many housekeepers had two, four, 
and sometimes six men quartered upon 
them for the space of twelve months. 
The battalions were exchanged every 



STATE OF FRANCE. l6l 

three months for others that were on 
the coast, and those on the coast were 
kept upon the water, in turns, a month 
at a time, in order to accustom them 
to the sea. They often made short ex- 
cursions from port to port for the same 
purpose, and in these excursions they 
sometimes allowed the English cutters, 
or gun-boats, to come near enough to 
them to make them their captives. 

The discipline of the troops has been 
always so good, that few, if any, com- 
plaintshave been made by the inhabi- 
tants of Amiens of the soldiers having 
misbehaved in their families. It has 
been said of them that they are quiet, 
and give no unnecessary trouble. All 
soldiers, on their march, are lodged in 
the same way, as they pass from town 
to town, on the inhabitants at large, 
and not on the publicans alone; but 
there are everv where receiving houses, 
where they may be lodged for the 

M 



162 



ACCOUNT OF THE 



trifling sum of sixpence per night per 
man. Therefore, few private families 
of respectability trouble themselves 
with these visitors. The usual punish- 
ment of a soldier, for misbehaviour, is 
confinement in a dungeon : if his crime 
has been heinous, he is flogged or sent 
to the gallies. 

The criminal laws of France are not 
so severe by much as those of England. 
Exposure on a scaffold on a public day, 
and in the prison dress, is the punish- 
ment of small offences and petty rob- 
beries; and over the head of the culprit, 
who is fastened by a rope to a pole, are 
affixed his name, and the cause of his 
punishment. For greater offences they 
are burnt with a hot iron on the right 
shoulder, or are condemned to the gal- 
lies for a term of years or for life : and 
if guilty of murder, or other very at- 
trocious crime, they fall under the 
guillotine. Those condemned to the 



STATE OF FRANCE^ H63 

gallies are employed in different parts 
of the Republic, in the public works, 
such as digging canals, clearing ports, 
or the like. Some hundreds have been 
at work for two years back at Antwerp, 
in repairing the port, and clearing the 
river of mud and rubbish. They work 
at the spade or barrow with iron balls 
fastened by a chain to their legs, and; 
are guarded by a bod)' of troops. The 
immense canal, which is to join the 
Northern to the Southern departments, 
a favourite project of Niipoleon, and 
which will bear his name, will be duff 
out bv these miserable wretches. 

Some of our readers may not be in- 
formed of the expeditious mode of exe- 
cution by the guillotine ; we shall there- 
fore attempt a description of it. It is 
fixed upon a scaffold, the axe suspend- 
ed between two pillars, down which it 
descends through a couple of grooves : 
it is held up by a spring and a latch, 
m 2 



164 ACCOUNT OF THE 

from which another string falls down at 
the side of one of the posts. The wretch 
who has forfeited his life to his coun- 
try's laws, ascends the scaffold by three 
or four steps, at the top of which an 
upright board presents itself; against 
this his body is placed : the board is 
let down flat on the fatal machine, two 
straps are attached to it to fasten him 
down if necessary, and the board isslipt 
forward on a wheel, so as to bring his 
neck exactly under the axe ; there it is 
-received in a board hollowed out; and 
another board, with a corresponding 
hollow, is let down and fastened upon 
it, like the pillories of England : this is 
no sooner done, than the executioner 
pulls the string that holds up the axe, 
and, in the twinkling of an eye, the 
head is severed from the body. The 
whole operation hardly takes tip two 
minutes. The head fails into a hole, 
concealed by a leathern apron, and the 



STATE OF FRANCE. \6S 

body is thrown down a trap-door un- 
der the scaffold. The apparatus takes 
to pieces. The usual place of execution 
is the public market ; and the weight 
of the axe, which is made with a slant- 
ingedge,like our ivory cucumber slices, 
is said to be forty pounds. In every 
department is a civil and a criminal 
tribunal, with a full power of life and 
death, which are opened to hear trials, 
more or less frequently, according to 
the business they have in hand. From 
these tribunals there is an appeal to the 
Chief Justice at Paris. 



l6g .ACCOUNT OF THE 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Statv of Religwn in the Low Countries — The 
Protest ants --Particular Account of those in 
theDepartment of J emmappes— Regulation of 
the Catholic Church — Tythes — Hierarchy of 
France — Appearance of the Clergy —Revival 
of ancient Splendour — Altars in the Streets. 

WE now come to the .interesting: 
question of the state of religion among 
the French. 

Though the catholics of France have 
been ever known to us by their spirit of 
intolerance, yet perhaps they have not 
really been more guilty -of that unnatu- 
ral feeling, than other nations who have 
been dupes to their priests. The hu- 
man heart does not naturally foster ar- 
bitrary principles. While harmony is 
preserved amongst the powers of the 
soul, and they act in their appointed or- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 16/ 

der, love and benevolence will fill the 
mind, and the genuine affections of hu- 
manity will operate without restraint. 
It is a mistaken notion of the great Go- 
vernor of nature, in the displays of his 
special favour, as taught by priests for 
the purpose of their own aggrandize- 
ment, that has given birth to the vio- 
lence of party zeal, and the barbarous 
measures of bigots. The more igno- 
rant the people have been, the more vio- 
lent has been this false zeal, and the 
more murderous these destructive mea- 
sures. These have existed among pa- 
gans and Jews, Mahometans and Chris- 
tians, and do not seem to be the off- 
spring of any one system of religion, 
more than of the rest ; for what religi- 
ous community can say they are ex- 
empt from them ? 

The people of Flanders, and the an- 
cient province of Hainault, have been 
celebrated for ages back by their scru- 



168 ACCOUNT OF THE 

pulous attachment to the catholfc 
church, and have not allowed protest- 
ants to appear publicly within their 
borders, unless they were counte- 
nanced by an imperial decree. Whilst 
they were under the Spanish yoke pro- 
testantism w r as not tolerated, and little 
was known of the disposition of the 
people towards it Afterwards, when 
the court of Vienna became master of 
the country, it began its reign by a 
display of tolerant principles, and an 
entire liberty of conscience. Some 
protestant societies upon this sprang 
up, and enjoyed the exercise of their 
religion during a number of years, but 
in process of time the decree concern- 
ing liberty of conscience was repealed, 
and the protestants ceased to assem- 
ble for worship. It was supposed that 
the revocation of this decree was ow- 
ing to the misrepresentations of the 
catholic clergy ; or ; as some have said, 



STATE OF FRANCE. l6*) 

to the suggestions of a favourite mi- 
nister. At the recovery of their liber- 
ty by the French revolution, they re- 
newed their public exercises of devo- 
tion, and obtained the order of Buona- 
parte after the concordat, for their mi- 
nisters to be salaried by the state. 

There are no protestants in the de- 
partment of Jemmappes, except what 
reside in the neighbourhood of the 
coal-pits. Here they are pretty nu- 
merous. Some observations respecting 
them may be interesting, and from 
these, inferences may be drawn respect- 
ing the protestants in general. It ap- 
pears that at the revocation of the 
edict of Nantes, many of the French 
protestants, driven by the necessity of 
their circumstances, took refuge there, 
where money was to be gained by work- 
ing in the pits. There are three or four 
villages in which they live, and during 
the whole time of their not being ai- 



170 ACCOUNT, OF THE 

Mowed public worship, they met at one 
another's houses, for the exercises of 
private devotion. About a twelve- 
month ago, they petitioned the em- 
peror to be incorporated into a church, 
to have a place given for their worship, 
and a minister paid by the state. 

At the time of this application some 
of them were in the habit of meeting 
in a private house on the Sundays to 
perform a religious service. This was 
not quite consistent with the laws of 
the realm, which give liberty of con- 
science and worship to all, but allow of 
no private meetings of which the ma- 
gistrates are not informed, and the 
purposes of which are not known. 
The prefet was made acquainted with 
their meeting, and that on a certain 
day the sacrament was to be adminis- 
tered to them by a clergyman, who 
was settled at Valenciennes, and who 
had long made them a visit at the be- 



STATE OF FRANCE* 171 

ginning of every second month. This 
magistrate was a man of an ill-favoured 
nihul, and of a dull and surly disposi- 
tion ; but as he had voted ia the na- 
tional convention for the death of the 
king, and other violent republican 
measures, it might be supposed that 
hie was not favourably inclined to re- 
ligious tolerance. He had been dis- 
appointed in his career of glory, by 
rising no higher than a prefet, and 
his mind had become black and 
gloomy by family distresses and losses. 
Prom these the transition to a blind 
devotion and superstition is not diffi- 
cult, and he had become the instru- 
ment of some crafty priests, who had 
found an asylum in his prefecture from 
want, and who employed their influ- 
ence over him to prevent the establish- 
ment of a protestant church. Every 
thing in the department may be said to 
be dependant on the prefefs will. His 



172 ACCOUNT OF THE 

representations are listened to in pre- 
ference to the representations of pri- 
vate individuals ; there is little chance 
of succeeding when he opposes ; or 
of substantiating a charge of partiality 
or injustice against him, when he has 
been guilty of a breach of duty, or an 
act of oppression. 

* Instigated by these priests, the pre- 
fet ordered two gendarmes to present 
themselves at the time of their meet- 
ing, and take them all into custody- 
They seized the minister and twelve 
other persons, and conducted them to 
tire prison of Mons. The next day the 
minister had a conference with the pre- 
fet, which was repeated twice after. 
What passed in these conferences has 
been kept a profound secret; but after 
two days the minister was allowed to 
return home, and, to his, shame be it 
spoken, left his twelve unhappy hear- 
ers, without protector or friencV in tlw 



STATE OF FRANCE. 1%3 

prison. Tliey remained there a fort- 
night : one of them died during that 
time, and within a week after the en- 
largement of the eleven, all but one 
died in a very extraordinary manner, 
and not without suspicion of having had 
a slow poison administered to them by 
the direction of the catholic priests. 
After this, the minister declined giving 
any assistance in the establishment of 
the church, and the business was con- 
ducted by a notary who had frequently 
addressed the people, and led their 
.devotions in prayer. 

Petitions to the emperor are usually 
sent through the hands of the prefet, 
who supports them if he thinks proper 
with his recommendation ; but it was 
much feared that the prefet of the de- 
partment of Jemmappes would be trea- 
cherous to these petitioning protest- 
.ants. They sent an address enclosed 



174 ACCOUNT OF THE 

in a letter to him, and at the same- 
time another directed to a celebrated 
protestant in Paris, who was to present 
it to the emperor. The prefet did not 
deceive them m their expectations ; he 
suppressed that which was enclosed to 
him, and was not a little mortified to 
receive the imperial decree, a fortnight 
after, for the establishment of a church 
and the payment of a min ister ; a copy 
of which was also sent to the people. 
This mortification was increased when 
he was required to be present shortly af- 
ter, with otherpublic authorities, at the 
opening of the church, where the same 
gentleman performed whom he had 
sent to prison. Thus the affair rested 
in the month of August last : they 
could not then procure a preacher, be- 
cause none being permitted to hold 
that office in the protestant church of 
France, but those who are educated 



STATE OF FRANCE. 175 

at Geneva, the number of ministers 
has not been equal to the demand, 
and two or three societies are obliged 
to unite under one pastor. 

When a minister has been found and 
accepted by the congregation, another 
address will be presented to the em- 
peror, stating his name, education, 
and qualifications; and then an order 
will be sent to the treasury, for the 
salary to be paid to him. This salary 
is 1200livres, or fifty pounds per an- 
num. In all the principal towns where 
protestants are numerous, societies have 
been formed. The number necessary, 
in order to ground a demand on the 
state, is five thousand souls, which are 
not required to reside in the same 
place : if contiguous villages or towns 
unite, they may have a preacher among 
them, and a building is given from 
the churches or chapels that were sup- 
pressed at the revolution, A number 
of these societies united compose a 



176 ACCOUNT OF THE 

synod; and all the synods are under 
the supreme direction of the general 
consistory at Paris. In the south, they 
are by far more numerous than the ca- 
tholics, but in the northern depart- 
ments they are only found scattered up 
and down. 

The regulation of the catholic church 
is precisely the same. One curate is 
allowed for five thousand souls, and 
the same sum is paid him as a salary. 
The curates are under the direction of 
their bishop, and all are governed by a 
principal assembly at the * capital. But 
as the service of the catholic church is 
much more complicated than that of 
the protestant, and more servants of 
the altar are required, the faithful are 

* No step whatever can be taken by the 
bishop, or even by the general council, without 
the approbation of Buonaparte, not even a cu- 
rate appointed ; so that although the pope is 
called the supreme head of the church, the em- 
yeror is supreme master. 



STATE OF FRANCE. 177 

obliged to furnish the assistants them- 
selves, and these men have but too 
often an indifferent provision. 

There is at present a greater want of 
catholic than of protestant clergy. So 
many have emigrated, and so few have 
been educated for the office during the 
last fifteen years, that in the country the 
duty of two or three churches is often 
performed by one priest. Duringmany 
years their stipends depended on the 
precarious liberality of the people, and 
at a period too when the devout had 
lost their means of being' liberal, and 
the new-made rich felt no dispositions 
to cherish the priesthood : and since 
the concordat the salaries have not 
been regularly paid by the state ; but 
have been generally in arrears, and 
often not paid at all. It has been said 
with confidence, that the emperor finds 
the burden of the priests so heavy, and 
his demands of a military nature so 



178 ACCOUNT OF THE 

much more important, that he has it 
in serious contemplation to re-establish 
the tythes, and so get rid of it altoge- 
ther. This seems the more probable, 
as the weight would then lie on the 
landholders, who, for the most part, 
having purchased their estates low, and 
enriched themselves very rapidly, may 
be able to bear an additional tax like 
this ; at least the people are ready to 
say so, whatever they may think them- 
selves. The church of Rome and its 
priests would no doubt rejoice in such 
an event, as it will procure them a 
surer mean of obtaining their incomes; 
and perhaps the protestant clergy, be- 
ing subject to like wants, may not ob- 
ject to receive their stipends from so 
effectual and certain a source. But 
there is more reason perhaps to expect 
that the dependance of the church 
upon the state will be wholly dis- 
solved, and that it will have no means 



STATE OF FRANCE. 179 

of support, but what it can derive from 
its own virtue, and the genuine influ- 
ence it produces on the minds of men. 
This does not seem an event by any 
means improbable, though we cannot 
state the period when it may be ex- 
pected to take place, but perhaps an 
opportunity for executing so impor- 
tant a design may appear as the issue 
of the grand contest in which the em- 
peror of the French is now engaged. 
So interesting an event as the entire 
downfal of the hierarchy in France 
never more to rise, is under the di- 
rection of a Being infinitely wise. He 
has often raised up men to execute his 
purposes, who have seemed to be ac- 
tuated by motives far different from 
that of the glory of God. It is true 
that the hierarchy has not now very 
far to fall. 

The influence of the priesthood over 
the people is so greatly diminished, that 
N ( 2 



180 ACCOtTSTT OF THE 

it can no longer be considered in the 
same formidable point of light. There 
are but few of the faithful who now 
conceive infallibility attached to their 
doctrines, or any high degree of vene- 
ration to be due to their persons. In- 
deed from a sight of thepi, one would 
suppose they were the very refuse and 
sweepings of the colleges and convents, 
so mean and shabby do they appear. 
When the country curates came into 
the towns, or were seen at their village 
cures, the mind involuntarily darted 
across the channel, and represented 
to itself our dancing, fox-hunting, and 
sporting, parsons, and asked whether 
the occupations of these men were the 
same. But in truth their situations 
have not a greater resemblance than 
their appearance. Taken from the 
lowest orders, and brought up in col- 
leges or convents where they were 
much confined, and had no opportu- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 181 

uity of knowing the world, and the 
opinions of the better sort of people 
being decidedly against both them 
and their employment, they have had no 
association, since the revolution, but 
with the common people, and have not 
the means of acquiring an appearance 
more genteel, or manners more refined, 
This was not the case with the for^ 
mer clergy of France. They were 
chiefly younger sons of good families, 
who entered the church with the ex- 
pectation of its riches and honours ; 
whereas the present servants of the al- 
tar have but poor prospects of worldly 
gain, and a very small quantum in ac- 
tual possession. Many of them go 
through a whole service for twentv- 
pence, and often are not paid at ail 
And as they have but little of satins 
and brocades, of gold and diamonds, 
to dress out their altars and their 
saints, the eyes of the multitude are no 



182 ACCOUNT OF THE 

longer dazzled and blind to their rear 
characters. Every exertion, indeed, is 
made by the priests to recover the 
splendour of their religious services. 
A few silver saints have been cast, 
and some new laced petticoats have 
been put upon the virgin, the altars 
have been decorated afresh, all the 
relics and images of the saints have 
been collected from the wreck of the 
revolution, and the old processions in- 
stituted anew, in those towns where 
no protestants assemble to worship. 

Agreeably to the old order of things, 
not only every town is recommended 
to the special care of a saint, but every 
street has its patron, and every hole 
its divinity. Uncommonly attached to 
idleness and dancing, they eagerly em- 
brace every pretence that their religion 
offers to, gaiety. They fail not to com- 
memorate the day sacred to the saint 
who presides over their street, or their 



STATE OF FRANCE. 183 

alley, dress up an altar to his name, 
and invite their friends to partake of 
their merriment ; for we are not to sup- 
pose that religion has any thing more 
to do with these ceremonies, than as it 
lends a name by which they may be 
called. Sometimes indeed they will 
chaunt a service in a contiguous cham- 
ber: this, however, occupies but a small 
portion of the day. Men are stationed 
with bags, to collect money of pas- 
sengers in the name of St. Peter or St. 
Paul, and it is spent in the pot-house of 
his purlieus, or upon a neighbouring 
green. Little children are always mimics 
of great ones. Here they imitate the re- 
ligious ceremonies, and with the same 
view. They spread a clean cloth (if 
they can get one) upon a chair or ta- 
ble in the street, set up a Bon Bleu, 
deck it out with pictures, shells, or 
broken china, and beg a liard for the 
service of the altar. They are, like 



184 ACCOUNT OF THE 

their teachers, importunate and trou- 
blesome in their demands upon all who 
pass by*. 



* How numerous and costly soever their 
saints and temples may be, there is a divinity, 
whose rites are not the least essential to the 
comfort of life, who is held in less reverence 
by them, than by us. Like our northern 
brethren, at a late period of their history, they 
erect but few edifices to the honour of Cloacina. 
In the villages^ and in public places otherwise 
decent, her rites are performed without regard 
either to their sanctity or their decency. Even 
at Verdun, a large part of their houses are des- 
titute of this so essential an appendage; and the 
sacrifices of the coy goddess, are consigned to ob- 
livion in the Meuse, or remain the dishonour of 
their ramparts, and of every bye corner of the 
town. English travellers with reason eomplain 
of this great want of delicacy in the French and 
Flemish people; for it is not possible to pass 
through their streets without perceiving its dis- 
agreeable effects. 



STATE OF FRANCE, 185 

In the places where protestant, 
churches are opened, altars in the streets 
are not permitted, nor, indeed, public 
processions and ceremonies of any kind, 
lest any member of the society should 
be scandalized by them. There the 
catholic priest carries the host in his 
pocket to the dying man, and the bu- 
rial of the dead is performed without 
pomp. The religious exercises of each 
party are confined within the walls 
of their respective churches. The ca- 
tholics have themselves expressed their 
approbation of this decision, not wish- 
ing to see all the mummery and non- 
sense renewed with which their streets 
were formerly disgraced. In some cases 
they have even assisted in the esta- 
blishment of the protestant worship, 
in order to restrain the power of their 
own priests. " They are well," say 
the) 7 , u in the churches, and when it 
suits us we will visit them there ; but 



186 ACCOUNT OF THE 

we do not wish them to stop the indus- 
try of the people by their unexpected 
and unseasonable interruptions." For, 
when the procession passes in which the 
host is carried, it is announced by the 
tinkling of a little bell, and all are ex- 
pected to come out of their'doors, or 
to open their windows and kneel down, 
on a chair, or the ground, while it is 
going by, repeating a prayer that is ap- 
pointed for the occasion. If it be met 
by persons in the street, they bend 
down on the pavement before it, a re- 
ligious rite which is peculiarly ill-timed, 
when a visit of ceremony is in question. 



STATE OF FRANCE. 187 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Faith of the Catholics — The Pope's Visit to 
Paris — Processions — *SY. George and the 
Dragon — Advantage arising from Confes* 
sion — Bishops — Bishop of Tournay. 

IT is not possible to estimate the quan- 
tity of the faith of the catholics of 
France. Appearances seem rather to 
persuade us that the services of the bet- 
ter sort of the people, if performed at 
all, are purely formal, and that no 
great concussion is necessary to induce 
them to change it for a more rational 
system. It is certain that no kind of 
veneration now attaches to the sove- 
reign pontiff. Were we, indeed, to 
form our opinion from the splendid 
description of his late visit to Paris, 
as given in the gazettes, and the high 
degree of awe with which the people 



J88 ACCOUNT OF THE 

are represented as having looked up to 
him, we might suppose ourselves carried 
back into the dark ages of Christianity. 
But it is assuredly known, that the 
great crowds who followed him, were 
stimulated rather by curiosity than by 
devotion, and when in the act of 
receiving his apostolic benediction, they 
doubted whether it was the effusion of 
ignorance or of superstition, and often 
expressed their contempt of it by loud 
bursts of laughter. 

In many of their public processions 
there is a mixture that savours much 
of paganism, or at least marks the 
ignorance of earlier times, that joined 
many things to religion, which evi- 
dently had nothing of religion in them. 
The priests of the present day, who 
are not such fools as to be ignorant of 
this, have endeavoured to exclude all 
this extraneous matter; but the peo- 
ple, w^ho are as fond of foolery as they 



STATE OF FRANCE. 189 

are of religion, and who would not 
give much for the processions, if there 
was not something comical and amus- 
ing, as well as devout and fatiguing in 
them, would not consent to have a 
part without having the whole of their 
old processions. An instance of this 
may serve to exemplify the observa- 
tion. In the first ages of Christianity, 
or previously to its establishment, (for 
the exact period is not known,) a 
wild beast, of an hideous form, is said 
to have inhabited a ditch in the neigh- 
bourhood of Mons, and flying out up- 
on all that passed, both man and beast, 
tore them in pieces and devoured them. 
A gentleman of Mons, known by the 
name of George, of truly patriotic 
feelings, ventured his life in obtain- 
ing a sight of the beast. He made 
up a figure as much resembling it 
as he could, and trained a number 
of dogs to attack and destroy it, 



19$ ACCOUNT OF THE 

When he thought them sufficiently in- 
structed, he led them out of the town, 
and set them upon the wild beast, 
which he killed, and brought in triumph 
to his house. There is now in the 
public library the head of a monster, 
said to have been the head of this 
dragon, (so it is called,) which St. 
George destroyed ; since we can not 
wonder that this George became a saint, 
and we are more willing to assign 
him a nook in the temple of fame, 
than we are to see St. Adam and St. 
Eve there, with many others of small re- 
nown, that are found in their calendar. 
There are persons who believe most 
seriously the fable of the head ; but, 
unfortunately for their orthodoxy, 
it is beyond all dispute the head of a 
crocodile, and we have no authority 
for believing that crocodiles have ever 
existed in that part of the continent. 
We leave it for antiquaries to deter- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 191 

mine, whether this has any relation to 
the history of the celebrated patron of 
our country ; not knowing what story 
our sign-posts refer to, nor where the 
scene of his great atchieveinen ts lay. Be 
that as it may, the scene of St. George 
and the dragon has been represented 
from time immemorial, in the public 
procession on the feast day of the city. 
A hideous figure, of a green colour, re- 
presents the dragon, and, as one wonder 
is often accompanied or followed by an- 
other, the dogs are represented as per- 
fectly unlike any that are now in be- 
ing. The public are expected to pay 
for the sight of a Guy Fox in Eng- 
land, and at Mons the dragon and the 
dogs lay the inhabitants under a pretty 
heavy contribution. The priests were 
desirous of reviving their annual pro- 
cession, but did not care to unite all 
this burlesque with the saints and re- 
lics of their churches, which were car- 



192 ACCOUNT OF THE 

ried together with the bones of the 
holy matron, the patroness of their 
city, on her golden car, in a solemn and 
grand procession through the streets of 
the town. But the magistrates and 
people unanimously refused to have 
the devotion without the fun, and the 
clergy at last consented that they 
should first laugh at the comical, and 
then bow to the solemn part of the 
train. 

As there are few practices among 
men of which some good may not be 
said, it may be observed in this place, 
that the practice of confession amongst 
this people often affords an opportunity 
for the discovery of irregularities and 
thefts from the young and inexperi- 
enced in the arts of confession. The 
priests assume a power, which certain- 
ly the law does not give them, of 
shutting up their people in a dungeon, 
which is under the church or the house 



STATE OF FRANCE. 193 

of the curate, when they choose to 
punish them for any offence. This is. 
done chiefly to the young; and the* 
practice has been renewed since the 
concordat. Things stolen are often 
retrieved by the threat of ecclesiasti- 
cal* censure, and of the Divine displea-r 
sure. 

The bishops, who are now the only- 
superior clergy of the church of France,, 
have endeavoured, by an affected show 
of penitence and humility, to impress 
the people with the same respect to 
their persons which was possessed by 
their predecessors in the apostolic of* 
fice; but seemingly without any ef- 
fect. The cathedral church at Tour- 
nay formerly possessed a silver shrine, 
containing the body of its founder, 
which had performed many miracles, 
and to which, of course, a high fene- 
ration was attached. .When the pro- 
perty of the church was sold, this was 



1#4 ACCOUNT OF THE 

purchased by a gentleman who kept 
it in his house, thinking he should one 
day sell the silver with the bones in it, 
much more advantageously than he 
could the silver alone as bullion. It turned 
out according to his expectation ; an of- 
fer was made him for the precious relic, 
and he accepted the price. A solemn 
day was appointed for the installation 
of the valuable piece of antiquity; the 
bishop Avent bare footed, carrying a 
heavy cross from the cathedral to the 
gentleman's house, which was at a 
good distance, and returned in the 
same manner, accompanied by all his 
priests, and as many images and relics 
as he could procure* But it does not 
appear that this humility produced any 
other effect than that of exciting ridi- 
cule and laughter. 

The same bishop, having been fre- 
quently invited to the houses of the 
wealthy families of the place, sent 



STATE OF FRANCE. 1<?5 

thorn notes of invitation to cards and 
supper, and took care to have it inti- 
mated that the game would run high. 
When his friends were assembled, with 
their pockets well lined for the game, 
he mounted on a table, and began to 
descant on the poverty of the church, 
on its inability to recover its splendour 
and respectability, without the gener- 
ous assistance of such as they, and so- 
licited strongly, that the money which 
was destined for play might be given 
for the service of the church. One of 
them immediately got up, and cried 
out, " The bishop is preaching ! the 
bishop is preaching ! Thomas put my 
horses to !* He was followed by the 
others, and the poor bishop was left at 
his table alone, deprived of the last 
hope of seeing his importance revive* 



o 2 



196 ACCOUNT OF THE 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Atheism or Deism of France— -Blind Belief of 
the World at large — Tendency of all Parties 
to the Belief in a God— Buonaparte's Prudence 
in re-estahliMngthe Ancient Worship — Family 
Altars — Worship of linages — Bible— Prayers 
in Latin— Con-cents— Charitable Institutions. 
-\ 

IT has been generally believed in this 
country, that the French nation is a 
nation of atheists. If bv the term 
nation be meant the rulers and chiefs, 
it may have long been, and perhaps 
still is the case ; if the soldiery of it, 
there can be little doubt ; if the gentle- 
men and tradesmen, of any education 
and rank, it may even be admitted to 
be generally true ; for such appears to 
be the actual fact at present. We 
should be rather inclined, however, to 
say, they are deists, than atheists : 



STATE OF FRANCE. 197 

for certainly the prevalence of atheism 
is not extensive, and the terms are 
usually confounded when men are talk- 
ing of unbelievers : but it can hardly 
be supposed that the mass of a people 
will desert, without a very decisive 
cause, the God they have been taught 
to adore, or the religious rites to which 
they have been blindly attached from 
their infancy. 

There is, perhaps, no large body of 
men which does not hold, without a 
fair examination, the religion they pro- 
fess. The number is not great in any 
country, of persons who have an op- 
portunity and a capacity of examining 
fairly the grounds of their faith ; and 
it is still, smaller -of those who take the 
pains of thinking about them ; there- 
fore they turn out to be Pagans, Ma- 
hometans, Christians, or Jews, ac- 
cording as they happen to be born 0^1 
the banks of the Ganges, within. sight 



19& Accovsr of fu.t 

of the temple of Mecca, under the con- 
clave of Rome, or in the less dignified 
precincts of Duke's Place. How few 
are the instances* comparatively speak- 
ing, of those who desert their religious 
standard, to enlist under the banners of 
another chief! We speak not of the 
petty divisions of contending christian 
sects, whose question is confined to a 
narrow compass* compared with the 
grand divisions in the creeds of men. 
Mahometans rarely become Jews, or 
Jews Christians; nor do idolaters often 
jtfin the standard of the cross. There 
is but one marked decisive step that 
men take in their investigations of re- 
ligious truths : it is from all these 
parties indifferently to join that of 
deism. The existence of a God, whose 
agency is every moment presented to 
view, cannot escape from their minds ; 
md though every idea uuited to this 
may be abandoned* they sec him. and 



STATE OF FRANCE* 19$ 

adore him in all his works, Hence 
it has happened in every age of the 
world, and in all societies of men, that 
the enlightened and the wise have 
united, notwithstanding the influence 
and artifices of the priesthood, in the 
simple belief of a God, unpolluted by 
human devices. This was the case 
With the ancient Greeks and Romans, 
and has been, and still is so, amongst 
Indians, Turks, and Christians ; a,nd it 
has been the case also, in an eminent 
degree, in France since the revolution, 
England alone, of all the countries 
of the earth, or to it, perhaps, may be 
added some other protestant countries, 
has had the happiness of seeing wisdom 
and learning united in support of its 
religion, and the most intelligent of its 
inhabitants engaged in the belief and 
in the defence of its faith. In most 
other countries, and in France espe- 
cially, the places of worship are fre- 



200 ACCOUNT OF THE 

'quented chiefly by women and children, 
and men of the lower classes. These 
seldom ask the reason of the faith that 
is in fhem ; or, when they do so, are sa- 
tisfied with the declaration of the priest, 
to whom they look for light, or are con- 
tented with believing as they do, be- 
cause their fathers have believed so 
before them. 

When the consul of France had pre- 
pared the way for 'the re-appearance, of 
religion, not being himself attached to 
any particular creed, like a subtle le- 
gislator, he presented to the people the 
image they had been taught to con- 
ceive the most lovely, and conciliated 
their affection by healing the deepest 
wounds of their heart. He knew that 
the easiest way of arriving at the dig- 
nity of an emperor, was gratifying 
their powerful prejudices, and silencing 
their religious fears. All the ancient 
legislators have acted upon the same 



.State- of france. 201 

principle, and their design has been to 
consolidate their -own power. Ths 
main object of ali religious establish- 
ments has been but one, namely, to 
controul the violent passions of men, 
and lead them to virtue, by a principle 
that can act on all ; but as human 
laws cannot reach beyond the ex- 
terior, they have required some auxi- 
liary more penetrating than themselves, 
something that can find its way to the 
heart. Reason is not generally the so- 
vereign guide of men ; sensible impres- 
sions are the more common instigators 
to action. The conduct of men is 
usually prompted by sensible impres- 
sions, and little can be judged of the 
ground- work of their faith from the 
actions themselves. There has been, 
indeed, some variety in the moral cha- 
racter of the systems of their lawgivers; 
but this variety has often arisen from a 
difference of climate, or the peculiar 



202 ACCOUNT OF THE 

turn of mind by which the society has 
been distinguished. 

The avowed atheism or deism of 
France, has been chiefly confined to 
men of letters and education, and the 
young men who, from the jeers of so- 
ciety, have been led to suspect, and 
then to abandon, the belief of Christia- 
nity. There are, however, many 
among them who attend the mass, 
because they see and acknowledge a 
decency and propriety in exercises of 
devotion, and because they think that 
any religion is better than none at all 

It ought to be confessed that, 
whencesoever the sources of their faith 
have arisen, the majority of the lower 
orders, and many of the middling ones, 
are sincere believers in the doctrines of 
the catholic church, and upright in 
the discharge of the duties it requires. 
In their attention to the externals of 
religion, in which they conceive great 



STATE OF THtAXCE. 203 

.merit to consist, they are much to he 
.commended, and might often he imi- 
tated, in England, we hear of the fa- 
mily altar among those christian sect§ 
•who are most attached to ceremonials. 
In France rhe bb'mg exists in reality: 
the Virgin Mother, with the infant Sa- 
viour in her arms, offers to the view 
the grand ohject of their faith ; and on 
every day of particular note, candles 
are lighted before her, that the institu- 
tions of religion may not, through a 
habit of negligence, be fon-xiten in 
their families. What the eye perceives, 
the heart will, in some measure, feeL 
We know not how the effect is pro- 
duced, but in this we behold the God 
©f nature converting, by a power un- 
known to us, the material object into 
-a mental impression. 

It certainly is not true, as often 
maintained by our divines, that the 
poor ignorant catholics pay an adora- 



J204 ACCOUNT OF THE 

tion to their images, and worship their 
saints. The warm opposers of popery, 
■at the time of the reformation, even 
♦the enlightened and the learned, hold 
out this idea strongly in their writings ; 
. ;hut we believe, the catholics of the 
present day regard their images only as 
the representatives of their saints, and 
their saints as the friends and compa- 
nions, of their God, through whom they 
•apprehend that their prayers will be 
jmore likely to meet with acceptance, 
than if presented by themselves to their 
Maker. They also consider the saints 
in the same light that, the ancients re- 
garded the sylphs and genii, appointed 
to be their guardians and protectors, to 
convey the favours of the Most High to 
•them, and their petitions to the throne 
of his grace. 

The main body of the catholics have 
never seen the bible. It is the principle 
-of their teachers, that they cannot un- 



STATE OF FRANCE. £05 

derstan'd its contents, and that ttie only 
portion necessary for their information 
is the historical part. They have, 
therefore, a history of the bible, which 
they put into the hands of all their 
young people. In this are cbntained the 
lives and characters of its heroes and its. 
saints, with the comments of the fa- 
thers upon them. These are all spi- 
ritualized ; and eminent divines have 
discovered no small degree of inge- 
nuity in tracing parallels, and drawing, 
inferences which suit the system which 
they support. The people are instructed 
in the doctrines of their religion from 
the canons of the church and the de- 
crees of its councils. Since then the 
doctrines and the examples are derived 
to them from other sources, they can 
have no need of the original work, and 
no bibles are seen among them. The 
protestants do not appear to have any 
particular want of bibles, or, if they 



20fi ACCOUNT OF THE 

have, it is their own fault, as they ai# 
to be had,, by means of the booksellers, 
from the presses of Switzerland and of 
Holland. 

The prayers of the church of Rome 
are said by the priests in Latin. There 
can be no doubt that the origin of this 
practice is in the universality of the 
language in the prior ages of the 
church, and the desire that they have 
had of preserving the strict unity of its 
worship : but it is not the less true that 
the people, who have never learnt 
Latin* are not ignorant of the mean* 
ing of the prayers, but know as well 
What the priest is saying as if it were 
delivered in their native tongue. It is 
customary for them to have a prayer 
book, with Latin on one side and 
French or Flemish on the other ; and 
they repeat in their own language, while 
the priest repeats in Latin. It does 
not seem to be of the first importance 



STATE OF FRANCE. 207 

with them to have the exact sentence 
in their mouths which the priest is ut- 
tering at the altar. This is not possible, 
for the churches are often so large, and 
many of the people at so great a distance 
from the priest, that they cannot hear 
him when his back is turned towards 
them, and therefore go through the 
prayers each for himself; and are in- 
structed by the tingling of a bell, by 
the change of the priest's position, and 
by other signals, of the part at which 
lie has arrived, and the posture they 
are to assume. 

Once on the Sunday, and sometime? 
twice, a sermon is delivered in the "lan- 
guage of the country ; but it is not 
deemed so much a duty to attend the 
instructions of the pulpit as to join in 
the service at the altar. Had the chief 
of the great nation declared decidedly 
in favour of the protestant religion, and 
exerted all his influence to establish it, 



208 ACCOUNT OF THE 

there is little doubt that he might have 
succeeded, by degrees, in persuading 
the people to become protestants, be- 
cause protestant preachers alone would 
have been paid by the state; and a great 
number who, through decency, go to 
mass, would, from the same motive, 
(a motive perhaps that is more preva- 
lent in the world than we are aware of) 
have gone to the protestant chureh> — 
The v public authorities would have been 
protestant, and the people would event- 
ually have followed in their train. True 
religion would have been furnished with 
an opportunity of dispiaying.its native 
excellence, and those who allow them- 
selves to think, would have been per- 
suaded to adopt it But it is not rea- 
sonable to suppose that, without some 
such powerful attraction, they should 
quit the catholic church for another. 
Except in the South of France, they 
know nothing of what the reformed re- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 209 

ligion is, and have always been taught 
to entertain the most contemptible or 
most absurd notions concerning it : 
and even in the South, where societies 
have been long formed, arid are nu- 
merous and respectable, it does not ap- 
pear that converts have been made from 
the church of Rome. The number of 
protestants remain nearly the same, with- 
out any apparent accession or diminu- 
tion. 

The strides which the priests have 
made for the recovery of their power, 
have induced some persons to believe 
that the convents will be soon permit- 
ted to re-open. At present none of these 
are allowed. Many of the priests and 
nuns, whose qualifications to educate 
youth have appeared satisfactory to the 
prefets, have had convents given to 
them free of rent, on the promise of 
teaching a number of poor children 
gratis. In some of these the women. 



210 ACCOUNT OF THE 

have ventured to receive noviciates, 
who have declared their intention of 
taking the veil. The age at which the 
first part of these ceremonies is per- 
formed is fourteen : they remain in the 
convent till arrived at their twentieth 
year, before the oaths of celibacy and 
dedication to God are pronounced, and 
the veil solemnly put on. If they re- 
pent of their project before that age, 
they are not admitted ; if otherwise, 
they are received into the sacred or- 
ders. As far as conscience is concern- 
ed, monks and nuns may still be made, 
and, if they please, they may be faith- 
ful to their vow r s ; but if afterwards the 
temptations of life should induce them 
tQ violate their religious engagements, 
they are free so to do, and are amenable 
to no tribunal. 

The government does not seem to 
concern itself about the women, many 
of whom have taken the order within 



STATE OF FRANCE. 211 

the last few months ; but they are more 
watchful over the men, whose influ- 
ence, in their religious character, is 
more to be feared, and will not allow 
them at present to take any step of the 
-kind. A society of these, who conduct 
a manufactory in the neighbourhood of 
Mons, being suspected of an intention 
to recruit their numbers, lately received 
from the magistrates an absolute in- 
junction to obey the laws in this re- 
spect, at the peril of being put under 
arrest. At the dissolution of the con- 
vents, pensions were appointed by the 
convention to the monks and nuns, 
but these have been generally ill paid, 
or not paid at all. They were allowed 
from two hundred to live hundred 
livres ; but the deed that authorizes 
them to demand it of the receiver-ge- 
neral of the department, has been 
no better than waste paper in their 
pockets. 



212 ACCOUNT OF THE 

It may not be amiss to mention, as 
connected with the affairs of religion, 
the charitable institutions that now ex- 
ist in the country. These have been 
organized anew since the reign of Buo- 
naparte, and are now on a most respec- 
table footing. The hospitals are large, 
and well supported ; one for the civil 
and another for the military depart- 
ment in every principal town. In some 
places these are united in an old abbey, 
or other large range of buildings. The 
orders of nuns also still exist, whose oc- 
cupation was the benevolent office of 
nursing the sick. The Beguines and 
others have been allowed to remain in 
their houses, being found so necessary 
for the relief of the poor and afflicted ; 
but their landed property has been 
taken away ; and as the sisters die, the 
societies will doubtless become extinct. 
There are also some institutions revived 
for the maintenance of the old and in- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 213 

firin, as well as for the diseased in 
mind. In every department is an or- 
phan school for poor children, who are 
so unfortunate as to lose their parents. 
In that of Mons, there are never less 
than five hundred, and often many 
more, where they are brought up in 
industry, taught to read and write, and 
placed out as apprentices to the work- 
ing trade which they prefer. 

There are also foundling hospitals, 
for the reception of the unhappy babes 
Avho are the fruits of illicit love ; and 
who, in places where these charities do 
not exist, are too often made the 
sacrifice of their mothers' fears 5 or in- 
ability to nourish and maintain them. 
Some have doubted, whether these in- 
stitutions are not the instigators to 
vice, rather than the cause of removing: 
it ; and whether young women have 
not abandoned themselves the more to 



214 ACCOUNT OF THE 

licentiousness, because they know that 
the fruits of their guilty commerce 
will be provided for at the public 
charge. But as the taking life away 
must be a crime of an infinitely blacker 
dye, than the giving it under any 
circumstances whatever; and .as we 
may presume that the parents of these 
children think but little of the effect, 
while they become the cause; and as 
we know, that the forlorn and aban- 
doned lover may usually be induced 
to preserve the fruit of her 'womb, 
when she can place it in a charity, 
where every provision is made for it, 
avc cannot scruple to admit the expe- 
diency and the humanity of the insti- 
tution. At Mons there are nearly a 
thousand children in the foundling 
hospital ; and thfe number of these 
hospitals being considerable, they must 
give a large accession of physical 



STATE OF FRANCE. 215 

strength to the republic. When a 
child comes in this way into the 
world, whose mother cannot, or will 
not maintain it, it is wrapped up, and 
laid in a basket at the door of a di- 
rector, or other reputable tradesman, 
and he sends it, with an account of its 
having been found, to the hospital. 

There is also in each town a public 
workhouse, which is open to all who 
cannot maintain themselves by their 
labour, and where they always find 
employment. All kinds of works are 
carried on there, and a good dinner of 
soup and bread provided. The poor 
who live in the town, may go there 
for their work and their loaf, and re- 
turn in the evening to their houses 
with the money they have gained. 
Whole families are admitted, if they 
desire it. All who can work, are em- 
ployed ; and the little ones are put into 



£16 ACCOUNT OF THE 

a room together, where they are 
attended by the aged, who are past 
labour. So that, in fact, there is no 
necessity that any one should beg, or 
starve, at present in France. 



.STATE OF FRANCE. 217 



CHAPTER XIX. 

State of Education— Schools, primary and se- 
condary — Lyceums — Buonaparte^ s School at 
Fontainbleau — The Pritanee ^-Objects of Stu- 
dy — Old Colleges — University of Louvain. 

IT is an important question relative to 
every people, what is the state of edu- 
cation amongst them ? Before the re- 
volution, the lower orders in France 
received no education at all; for none 
was wanting in the kind of training 
that their priests thought it necessary 
to give them, and the nobles were not 
more desirous than they of enlight- 
ening the minds of their vassals. The 
low countries, however, abounded in 
colleges and universities, which have 
been celebrated for the learned men 
whom they have produced. The stu- 
dents were of the noble families, or 



SIS ACCOUNT OF THE 

young men designed for the learned 
professions : their numbers, therefore, 
could not have been very large. The 
middling classes of life were greatly 
confined in their ideas, and sought 
after no information but what would 
assist them in getting money. Dur- 
ing the anarchy of republicanism, it 
was a crime for a man to be wise ; and 
many lost their heads for the same rea- 
son that others did their warehouses, 
because they were too well stored. 
Every thing that looked like learning 
was devoted to destruction ; and what 
constitutes the pride and happiness of 
society, knowledge, and wealth, were 
alike marks every where set up to be 
shot at : and, as a fool once set fire to 
the grandest repository of human sci- 
ence, and celebrated his name by de- 
priving the world of its splendour; so 
the fools of France will be ever famed 
in the page of history, for having 



STATE OF FRANCE. 21^ 

extinguished every spark of science, 
and destroyed every line of literature 
that fell in their way. The people 
then became immersed in ignorance, 
though boasting of their " age of rea- 
son," and abandoned to its low-born- 
licentiousness which is its natural com- 
panion. 

One of the first things that the 
legislature did, after emerging from 
this short night of darkness, was tcf 
organize the public schools and col- 
leges ; to endow them ; to appoint the 
most distinguished masters that could 
be found, to direct them; and to animate 
the youth by occasional visits and re- 
wards of their industry, and their genius. 
In this, Buonaparte has acted a most 
conspicuous part, both by his decrees 
and his personal attentions. The plans 
of the public schools, and the names 
they have borne, have been changed 
several times ; and no person is allow- 



220 ACCOUNT OF THE 

ed to exercise the art of teaching, 
either in these, or in private semi- 
naries, in any part of the republic, 
without he be first authorized by the 
magistrates, who require written testi- 
monials of his talents and moral charac- 
ter, signed by respectable merchants, 
or men well known. The lowest of 
these schools are called the primary 
schools, and teach reading, writing, 
and arithmetic ; above them are the 
secondary, in which are taught the 
classics and mathematics, &c. or what 
the French and Scotch call, the hu- 
manities. These schools are not paid 
by the government, but generally have 
a place furnished them for their classes 
to meet in; and receive such other 
encouragement as is likely to stimulate 
their youth in the pursuit of their stu- 
dies, and render them worthy a place in 
the lyceums, into which they are not 
admitted till they have distinguished 



STATE OF FRANCE. 221 

themselves in the lower houses of edu- 
cation. These have public examina- 
tions once a year, to which the magis- 
trates and principal inhabitants of the 
towns which contain them, are in- 
vited ; and which are, in general, 
usefully and well conducted. 

The lyceums are regulated on a su- 
perior scale. One of these is opened 
in every military division : an extenr 
sive range of buildings is appropriated 
to their use ; and the professors, who 
receive their salaries from the em- 
peror, are men of the very first rate 
abilities. At the head of all these, is 
generally reckoned Fontainbleau. This 
is the favourite school of Buonaparte ; 
which he visits frequently in person, 
and where he collects the young men 
who are the most eminent for their 
abilities, and the most distinguished 
by the advancements they have made 
in the other departments of the empire* 



222 . ACCOUNT OF THE 

Here is his grand military school, 
■where his young soldiers and generals 
are formed, previously to their appear- 
ing in his more public school, the 
wars. 

If the objects of education be law 
or divinity, there are universities at 
which the vouns: men finish their stu- 
dies. There is also a celebrated school 
at Paris, called the Pritan^e, where 
the sciences are studied under every 
possible advantage. The large col- 
lection of antiques from different parts, 
in painting, sculpture, &c. are ren- 
dered essentially useful to the young 
students. The education received in 
the schools and colleges of old France 
is esteemed much superior to that of 
the conquered country ; for, in the 
latter, it still remains in the hands of 
the priests. Their method of teaching 
the Latin, for we hear nothing of the 
Greek in their schools, is much easier, 



STATE OF FRANCE. 223 

and less fatiguing to the youth, than 
that of the English seminaries : more 
is done by dictation and exercise, than 
by committing to the memory. They 
attend to the mythology of the an- 
tients, geography, history, and rational 
arithmetic (arithmetique raisonnee), 
which includes the lower mathema- 
tics; but their philosophy, and study 
of the belles lettres, are cramped, by the 
fear of speaking too plain. It will 
perhaps be hardly credited, that an 
esteemed professor in the college of 
Mons, when asked not long ago by 
one of his scholars, a question relative 
to the antipodes, replied, " we never 
talk of that, it is an heretical notion/ 5 
Though they do not dare to confine sci- 
ence within the narrow limits that their 
ancestors had marked out, yet they 
cannot give it ail the latitude it enjoys 
in the colleges of our island. The 
mysteries and fables of their religion 



224 ACCOUNT OF THE 

still form a favourite part of their ex- 
ercises ; and going to mass, saying 
their catechism,and reading their church 
history, occupy a large portion of their 
valuable hours of study. This *is not 
the case at the lyceum at Brussels, the ! 
national college : no studies relative to 
religion are allowed there, except on 
the Sunday, and then only within the 
walls of their chapel. In the lyceums, 
chairs are established for teaching the 
modern languages, and particularly the 
eastern ; from which we may conclude, 
that the heart's desire of Buonaparte 
respecting Egypt, is not given up, but 
will be renewed at the earliest period, 
when an opportunity presents itself. 
During the peace, the project was made 
and decided upon by him, to appoint 
an English professor in each lyceum ; 
but now, the very sound of the word 
sets his whole soul into such a ferment, 
that it certainly will not be executed 



STATE OF FRANCE 225 

till the war is over. All the old col- 
leges in Flanders, which were sup- 
pressed in the revolution, and have 
lost their endowments, have remain- 
ed in this state till the present 
day. Latterly, an attempt lias been 
made to revive the celebrated college 
of Louvain, and they have now some 
professors of great character and repu- 
tation. The old buildings have long 
been occupied as barracks for invalid 
soldiers, and it is presumable thatthey 
will not be turned out. The students 
are lodged in the town, and their 
numbers have been greatly augmented 
during the last twelve months. 



226" ACCOUNT OF THE 



CHAPTER XX. 

Amusements of the Lore Countries— Archer y-r- 
The Game of the Ball — Dancing — Village 
Festivals — Observance of Sunday — Intoxica- 
tio n — R eligious Feasts, 

TlIE principal amusements of the Low 
Countries are peculiar to themselves ; 
archery is one of them, and the arrows 
are directed perpendicular into the air. 
When the arrow was the principal wea- 
pon of annoyance to an enemy, in 
order to encourage the use of it, and 
to improve the men in the art of 
using the bow, prizes were instituted 
by the municipality of every town 
and village, to be given on the day of 
its feast, and the bowmen were in- 
vited from the neighbouring places to 
shoot at wooden birds, that were fixed 



STATE OF FRANCE. 227 

upon a pole from forty to sixty feet 
in height, raised up in the market- 
place. The smallest of the prizes was 
given for the first bird that fell, and 
the most valuable to the man that 
brought down the last. They were 
various, as the municipality chose to 
select them : a silver coffee-pot or 
drinking-mug, half a dozen silver 
spoons, a set of china, a dozen of 
pewter plates, or some other useful 
article of house-keeeping, that will re- 
main with them and their posterity as 
a proof of their skill. This amuse- 
ment still continues, and the prizes 
are still given, though the art is be- 
come of little value ; and since the in- 
vention of gunpowder they have added 
prizes for the best marksman with a 
musket. 

Prizes are also given to those who 
discover the most muscular strength 
and agility at the game of the ball. It is 
Q 2 



228 ACCOUNT OF THE 

a stnatl white one, which is struck with 
thje open hand into the adversaries' 
ground/ whose business it is not to 
let it rest there, but drive it back 
again. Parties are formed sit this 
play frf village against village, and 
town against town, and the most 
expert party gains the prize. Both 
the arrow-shooting and the game of 
the ball are under the inspection of 
the officers of the police, who attend 
as umpires of the games. The same 
exercises are observed at the village 
festivals or wakes, and the crowds that 
attend them are very considerable: 
besides these are the little gaming 
tables of rouge and noir , where the 
usual stake is a halfpenny, or per- 
haps a hard- The servants and cot^ 
tagers join in a dance under a spread* 
ing tree, if there happen to be one in 
the centre of the village, while the 
farmers with their friends from the- 



STATE OP FRANCE- 229 

towns, keep the best musicians em* 
ployed in the orchard of the public 
house, where the juice of the grape is 
freely banded about. From an early 
hour after dinner their amusements 
continue till evening on the green, 
and then they retire into the houses, 
M'here the mirth is kept up till morn- 
ing. * 

With dancing and with merriment 
a Frenchman is not easily tired. These 
diversions beinn on the Sunday, which 
is always the day of the greatest note, 
because it is the day of the greatest 
leisure, and because their religion does 
not forbid such a use of the day, and 
it continues generally through the 
Monday and Tuesday. There is usu- 
ally a considerable number of villages 
surrounding the great towns, and not 
unfrequently the citizens reckon upon 
thirty or forty of whose pleasures they 
expect to partake. Every Sunday k a 



£30 ACCOUNT OF THE 

dancing day in France through the sum- 
mer months, and they are so fond of 
this amusement that the Monday also 
is dedicated to it by the giddy youth, 
who do little else than sleep in the 
morning and dance at night. Public 
dancing places are built in the vicinity 
of the towns, where a large area, 
covered with a natural or artificial 
awning, and provided with a move- 
able floor, is surrounded sometimes 
by a double row of boxes for the ac- 
commodation of the distinct compa- 
nies ; to these are added promenades 
planted with shrubs, and shaded ; and 
here all the inhabitants indifferently 
resort to their pleasures. 

It must be acknowledged that a 
people who find their amusement in 
exercises so healthy, so invigorating, 
and so little mischievous as these are, 
when not pursued to excess, are better 
entitled to the character of rational 



STATE OF FRANCE. 231 

and humane, than others; who take a 
delight in torturing and murdering by 
inches the animals that God has pro- 
vided for our defence and our nourish- 
ment. Bull-baiting, bear-baiting, and 
cock-fighting, are neither good for 
the promotion of health, nor for the 
improvement of the social feelings } 
they are calculated rather to brutalize 
the human race. Would it could be 
said, that in none of the amusements 
of the French there entered inhu- 
manity and cruelty ! They have one 
to the account of which these must be 
charged : a cock, a hen, or a duck, is 
hung up by the legs, so high that by 
leaning thev can reach it. The lads, 
and the lasses too, of the lowest orders, 
we may well presume, (and to the 
shame of the tender sex be it spoken), 
are blindfolded, and starting from a 
fixed distance with a sabre in their 
hand, aim at the poor animal, andeii- 



232 ACCOUNT OF THE 

deavour to cut off its head. The per- 
son who succeeds becomes possessor of 
the bird, and bears it off in triumph 
to furnish a supper for his friends. 
This is a pastime which belongs to the 
province of Hainault, and ought not 
to be charged to the account of the 
French. Drunkenness was a vice lit- 
tle known in France before the revo- 
lution ; it was rare to see a man, either 
in the higher or lower circles of life, 
in a state of intoxication. In the in- 
ferior circles the common amusement 
was dancing, to qualify them for 
which thev drank enough to make 
them gay, but not enough to make 
them stupid ; and the better sorts who 
were free enough in circulating the 
bottle, drank the wine with their meals, 
and after the desert finished the repast 
with a cup of coffee. This still con- 
tinues to be their practice; and they 
often express their surprise, haw crea- 



STATE OF FRANCE. 233 

tures formed for society, and capable 
of enjoying its sweets, and especially 
a people so capable of rational con- 
versation as the English, can allow 
themselves to lose all its relish, and 
plunge themselves into broils and mis- 
chief for a gratification so brutal. A 
material change has taken place in the 
lower orders, who have been taughc by 
the Austrian prisoners and new sub- 
jects to smoke tobacco and drink beer, 
both of which are now consumed in 
large quantities, particularly by the 
soldiery, and a great deal of intoxica- 
tion is the consequence. This may 
also in part be attributed to the dissi- 
pation that followed in the train of 
liberty. 

All religious feasts were originally 
abolished in France, but by the con- 
cordat the four principal ones were 
revived by order of government, which 
neither knows nor acknowledges any 



£54 ACCOUNT OF THE 

other. The decades have been wholly 
set aside, and the new calendar would 
have given place to the old one at the 
same time, but for the difficulty that 
was apprehended from all public acte 
and private contracts having borne for 
so long a time the dates of the repub- 
lican almanack. But the old calendar 
will appear in all the acts of state from 
the beginning of the present year 
(1806). Since the renovation of re- 
ligious days and religious ceremonies, 
the fanatical and idle part of the peo- 
ple have professed to believe, that the 
holy Father was led by necessity to 
consent that the rest of their feasts 
should remain suppressed, and that it 
is their duty to respect their saints by 
idleness and diversion, rather than their 
family by industry and labour. Many 
more of the feasts therefore are observ- 
ed by the priests and some of the peo- 
ple, and especially in the Low Cour^ 



STATE OF FRANCE. 235 

tries. wSo much devotion, or shall we 
rather say so much idleness and diver- 
sion ? must needs have a very sensible 
effect on the labouring and manufac- 
turing part of the community. The 
price of labour is always low, but it is 
rendered so much less productive by 
these perpetual interruptions, that it 
would not be possible for the people to 
subsist without a frugality that keeps 
pace with their sloth. Had we not al- 
ready seen the causes why manufac- 
tures do not flourish in France, we 
might find an adequate cause in this. 



$3§ ACCOUNT OW TrtJE 



CHAPTER XXL 

French Economy — Vegetable Stezcs and Soups 
— National Prejudices — National Character 
of the English — Feeding of Cattle — Econo* 
my of Fuel. 

NECESSITY is the mother of inven- 
tion, and it has been so in a conspi- 
cuous manner in the French kitchen, 
where a small quantity of provision is 
made to assume a respectable figure, and 
the simple fruits of the earth are cook- 
ed in a thousand forms. Independent 
of the necessity arising from poverty, 
their religion enjoins on them a fre- 
quent abstinence from meat. Fish is 
so scarce and dear in the time of war, 
particularly in the interior, that it is 
not possible for the generality of the 
people to taste it, and they are not ac- 



STATE OF TRANCE. 237 

quaintcd with the variety of ways 
in which we make up oar flour 
into puddings. If then their tables 
are spread on a meagre day, it must 
be with, vegetables, and vegetable 
soups, whifch they prepare in a supe- 
rior manner. Much as the English- 
man may laugh at the soup-meagre 
andsallads of the French, when his 
table is before him, loaded with huge 
pieces of beef, and fenced round with 
smiling goblets of ale,, it were much 
to be wished, for the happiness of our 
middling and lower orders, that some 
of the French economy could be intro- 
duced into their families. 

Vegetables are generally considered 
by us as a relish for our meat rather 
than as a source of nourishment to our 
bodies ; but nothing is more certain, 
than that vegetables, when properly 
dressed, afford good and nourishing 
juices, and of themselves arc able- to 



238 ACCOUNT OF THE 

maintain the force of a strong man. 
What but they, sometimes with a pro- 
portion of grain, and sometimes with- 
out, give strength to the horse, and 
bulk and fatness to the ox? and what 
but they give nourishment to the other 
animals, who become themselves the 
food of man ? When vegetables are 
boiled in water till their best juices are 
extracted, and in that state presented 
upon our tables, it is not wonderful 
that their grosser particles afford us lit- 
tle or no nourishment; but when stew- 
ed in their own moisture, with the 
addition of a small quantity of butter, 
they contain more nourishment than 
the over-boiled meat upon which we 
often feed. The different mixtures of 
vegetables seasoned with herbs and 
spices, furnish a variety of pleasant 
food ; and, if well stewed and then 
boiled into a soup by a skilful cook, 
are not to be distinguished from soups 



STATE OF FRANCE. 239 

in which a quantity of meat has been 
boiled ; especially if mixed with peas, 
rice, French beans, vermicelli, or other 
such things. This will be confessed 
by all travellers on the continent, , on 
whose minds the caricatures of Ho- 
garth have not made too deep an im- 
pression. 

National prejudices are usually 
strong, and those which distinguish 
the Englishman are perhaps as pow- 
erful as any that have ever existed, 
notwithstanding the contiguity of his 
residence to the continent, and the fre- 
quent visits he makes to it It may 
be said, " they are so with reason, for 
the Englishman no where finds the 
comfort and family happiness, which 
he sees at home." And this is certainly 
true* No nation has given so com- 
plete a finish to life, (if so we may be 
permitted to express the idea), as the 
English have done; and this no doubt 



£40 ACCdvifT tiF fin, 

is the cause of that strong national 
character for which the English are 
famed by foreigners;, and yrhith they 
acknowledge to be the greatest hap- 
piness of our nation. It is the 
bond of union, it is the rallying point 
of our countrymen. Wherever they 
are found, they love to see English 
goods, and English faces, and we may 
add English characters too, and> 
knowing well their worth, they think 
them cheap at any price. By this 
means English manufactures have be- 
come known, and well known too, in 
all parts of the world, and their value 
is appreciated by the other nations. 
Frenchmen have observed, " If we 
could have amono 1 us so strong a na- 
tional character as you have among 
you, France would eclipse all the world 
in a few years in power and in wealth ; 
and would do it, not by conquests* 
which knav he !os* koon rvfrcr Inev are 



STATE OF FRANCE. 241 

acquired, but, on the surer basis of 
worth and respect." But the French- 
man is as much too pliant, and too 
little attached to his country and its' 
produce, as the Englishman is too 
stubborn, and too unwilling to learn 
from another. For certainly there is 
no country that has not some virtue in 
it, which, if adopted by our own, 
might render us still more perfect in 
national felicity. If life could be ren- 
dered more sweet, and the hardness of 
the times, the common subject of com- 
plaint, in some measure removed, it 
would be of little consequence from 
what source the cause of it arose. 
And certainly it might be so in many 
cases, if the best use were made of the 
bountiful provisions of nature. 

Upon the continent, not in France 
and Flanders only, but also in Holland, 
the economy of provision is extended 
to the cattle, The wife of our modern 



242 ACCOUNT OF THE 

farmer would doubtless think her time 
ill employed in making vegetable soups 
for her cows ; but no day in summer 
or in winter is allowed to pass there, 
without a trough of soup being given 
to these animals in the morning, and 
it is frequently given in the evening 
also. It is made up of different ingre- 
dients, according to the season of the 
year ; and, whatever may be said of 
the summer months, when there is an 
abundance of moist food in the fields, 
it must be highly useful in the winter 
season, when their food is dry, and 
furnishes but little milk. A root, 
which resembles a turnip in its colour, 
and a large thick carrot in its form, is 
what gives it its chief strength in the 
winter: the chaff and sweepings of the 
barns are boiled with it, and sometimes 
a quantity of hay or straw. In the 
spring, when food becomes most scarce, 
the women collect the thistles, nettles, 



STATE OF FRANCS. 243 

and long grass that grow up in the 
hedges and ditches, and also the weeds 
that are gathered out of the corn when 
it is cleaned. It is common for the 
day labourers to keep a cow with lit- 
tle or no land to feed it on. It is fed 
in this frugal way, the wife and chil- 
dren providing the victuals ; and thus 
the markets are supplied with a consi- 
derable quantity of butter and cheese 
even in winter. They give bread to 
their horses, when they travel, either 
in waggons or diligences. This is 
made of rye without fermentation, 
and is esteemed more profitable and 
heartening, than grain in an unmanu- 
factured state. 

The general economical principle of 
the French, is to prepare by fire, all 
the food for themselves, and a great 
deal for their cattle, and they scarcely 
ever eat any thing but what is hot, 
for heat with the food assists the di- 
e 2 



244 ACCOUNT OF THE 

gestion, and of itself even adds to its 
nourishment They use the same eco- 
nomy in their fuel. Most of their 
cooking is done by charcoal, a very 
small quantity of which, burnt in 
stoves, built for the purpose, is suffi- 
cient to keep victuals boiling for a 
long time. Their coals also are well 
husbanded. They are sifted, so as to 
separate from them the dust, which is 
mixed with water incorporated with a 
thick strong clay, and then beaten hard 
into an iron mould, and made like an 
oblong brick. When dry, these bric- 
kets become perfectly hard, and make 
an excellent and durable fire. The 
worst of coal-dust, such as abounds in 
our midland counties, will in this way 
burn very pleasantfy. 



STATE OF FRANCE, 24£ 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Management m Farm-houses — Large Gar- 
dens — Apoplexies and sudden Deaths rare 
— Wolves, Foxes — Beer, Wines ? Brandy— 
Weights and Measures, — Money. 

THERE is a striking difference alto- 
gether in the management of the firms 
of France and those of England, nor is 
it hardly credible at how small an ex- 
pense the families of the farmers are 
maintained. A vegetable soup, a dish 
of stewed vegetables, with sometimes 
some slices of fat pork in it, a piece 
of cheese-curd, and plenty of bread, 
composed half of wheat and half of 
rye, is the usual dinner of the farmer's 
family. And in the evening they feed 
heartily and cheerfully upon a large 
bowl of sallad, a vegetable stew and 
bread, or upon a milk soup. Cold vie- 



246 ACCOUNT OF THE 

tuals cannot satisfy the appetite like 
warm food, and never produces the 
same sensation of refreshment. Heat 
itself seems to contribute a satisfaction, 
and doubtless the body is not obliged 
to furnish so much of its natural 
warmth when hot, as when cold vic- 
tuals are to be digested. Foreigners 
rarely eat any cold food. 

The farmer therefore is careful to 
provide himself with a large garden, 
and to keep it stored with a good pro- 
vision, and regular supply of vegeta- 
bles, for the winter as well as the sum- 
mer months. His fruit also is valu- 
able to him ; for apples, pears, &c. 
baked and eaten with bread, of- 
ten constitute the evenings repast. 
These are refreshing, wholesome, and 
nourishing. It is on these accounts 
that convents were always provided 
with a spacious garden, well laid out, 
and planted with the best fruit trees, 



STATE OF FRANCE. 247 

and with vegetables in great abundance. 
It may even be doubted whether the 
gardens did not supply both to them 
and to the farmers the half of the food 
which they consumed. The poor la- 
bourer pursues the same economical sys- 
tem, and never sups, after the fatigues 
of the day, but on a hot dish. It may 
be thought that their labourers cannot 
do so much work as ours. This is the 
case of the manufacturers and artizans, 
but the cause is not in the want of 
force but of skill, in the habit of indo- 
lence, and little spirit of industry that 
is among them. But it certainly is 
not true of the labourers in the field. 
They are accustomed, like ours, to 
a slow regular pace and method of 
work ; they go steadily on, and are 
not deficient in the sum of their . la- 
bour. And surely their warm vegeta- 
ble and milk diet must give more mois- 



5248 ACCOUNT OF TH£ 

ture and more strength to their bodies* 
than cold bread, or bread and cheese. 

It is not foreign from the subject to 
remark here, that apoplexies and sud- 
den deaths are seldom known in France, 
and indeed in no country are so com- 
mon as in England, where perhaps the' 
largest quantity of strong animal food 
is eaten, and the smallest use is made 
of vegetables. May we not presume 
that such gross feeding fills the body 
too full of thick blood, which meeting 
sometimes with obstructions in its cir- 
culation, occasions these events. The 
same danger does not seem to exist 
when the blood is kept clear, and more 
free in its circulation, by a larger sup- 
ply of vegetable, and a smaller propor- 
tion of animal juices. 

Their farm houses are not built for 
pleasure, but in a way suitable to their 
use: and the out-buildings together 



STATE OF FRANCE. 249 

with the house generally form a square, 
in the centre of which is the yard, 
where every thing is shut up safe and 
warm in the nisjht. The cause which 
rendered such security necessary has 
been in a great measure removed from 
France; namely, the ravages that were 
formerly made by the wolves. It is 
seldom that any of them are seen in the 
northern departments ; never except in 
the Winter, when they are driven from 
the forests by the want of food. In 
Champaigne, and the province of the 
Ardennes, where the forests are large, 
they are still pretty numerous ; and 
when hunger obliges them to travel 
from home, they commit great depre- 
dations. It sometimes happens that 
they go mad, when the effect of their 
rage is dreadful, and almost certain 
death to those who happen to approach 
them. A reward is paid by the govern- 
ment for every one that is killed ; for a 



250 ACCOUNT OF THE 

female the reward is double of what is 
given for a male. While the writer was 
at Verdun, which was during the winter, 
a week seldom passed, and sometimes 
not two days, without the skins of 
them being brought in to be sold to 
the furriers. They have also foxes of 
a very large size, not a great deal less 
indeed than the wolf, but by no means 
mischievous. 

The people of the Netherlands, as 
well as those of the northern depart- 
ments of France, drink a great deal of 
beer which is nourishing, though not so 
pleasant in its taste as ours, and it is 
not intoxicating. In Flanders the heads 
and feet of cows and calves are boiled 
in the liquor before it is put upon the 
malt, and not unfrequently a small calf 
entire, so that, containing a quantity 
of these animal juices, it is often gluti- 
nous, and even sticky. The farther 
we sro south, the lighter the beer is 



STATE OF FRANCS. 251 

made, and at Paris it is perfectly 
bright, clear, and sparkling. The use 
of beer is become much more prevalent 
of late years in France. In Burgundy 
and Champaigne it is more generally 
drank than wine. It is far more agreeable 
than the common wines, even to the 
taste of the inhabitants, and much less 
likely to disagree with them. The fact 
is, that the greater part of the wines 
raised on a spot, the aspect of which is 
not entirely southern, is made very 
poor, and are usually consumed within 
a twelvemonth after they are made ; so 
that they are by no means wholesome, 
especially if taken in quantities. 

The vines in a direct southern aspect 
supply the cellars of the rich, or afford 
wine for a foreign market ; and no- 
thing remains for the people at large 
but the produce of the unripened 
grapes, and the second running of the 
good ones, which an Englishman 



§52 ACCOUNT OF THE 

would esteem little better than vinegar 
and water* The same is true of their 
brandies : we meet with very little good 
brandy in France : all that is good is 
made on its southern side and on the 
coast of the Mediterranean, and is 
mostly sold for exportation. What is 
made in the interior is either very 
weak, or strengthened by chemical 
preparations. The best French brandy, 
and perhaps the best of most other 
productions of the earth, is to be met 
with in England. 

It is many years since the money, 
the weights, and the measures, both 
of surfaces and of solids, have been di- 
rected by the national assembly to be 
regulated upon the same rule; namely, 
that of decimals. As a regulating prin- 
ciple for the measures, they have taken 
the ten millionth part of a quarter of a 
degree of a meridian, which they call a 
metre ; from this they rise by_ tenths, 



STATE OF FRANCE. 253 

and descend in the same proportion; 
so that all measurements are made in 
the most simple and most intelligible 
manner ; and when once well under- 
stood, will facilitate the sale of their 
merchandize and calculations. But it 
is not an easy matter to persuade a 
people to change their old customs and 
ways ; and although the government 
have taken every pains to establish 
their own calculations, they are not 
generally adopted* and least of all in 
the conquered countries, where they are 
rendered sufficiently unpopular by hav- 
ing been introduced from the French 
government. 

In all public markets, and in the 
manufactories where duties are paid, 
the new weights and measures are used 
by necessity ; but in the retail trade, 
though they are always kept on the 
counters, others* which are concealed 



£54 ACCOUNT OF THE 

under it, are most frequently brought 
into use. A regulation of this kind had 
indeed become highly desirable, not 
only because the conquered countries 
had weights and measures peculiar to 
themselves, but because the provinces 
of France did not follow the same rule 
in their weights and measures. The 
weights also rise and descend by 
tenths, having for unity the weight of 
a centimetre cube of distilled water at 
the thawing degree, and this they call 
adramme. All the new republican and 
imperial money bears likewise a deci- 
mal proportion to a livre, which itself 
contains ten double sous, or pence. 
The Napoleons, which have been coin- 
ed since the coronation of Buonaparte, 
are gold pieces of ten, twenty, and 
forty livres. Their silver pieces are 
livres, two livres, and five livres, and 
they reckon downwards as low as the 



STATE OF TRANCE. <255 

hundredth part of a livre, which they 
call a centime. The old terms, sous 
and denier, are not known in the pub- 
lic offices ; they count only in livres 
and centimes. 



%56 ACCOUNT OF THE 



CHAPTER XXiri. 

Account of the Gendarmerie — Their Behaviour 
to the English Prisoners — Police — Original 
Intention and actual Power of that Body — 
Their Discipline. 

I HE institution of the gendarmerie is 
very ancient. It was originally de- 
signed as the body guard of the king, 
and was composed of gentlemen, or 
the sons of gentlemen, who were hand- 
somely provided for in that capacity. 
Now the number of these men is great- 
ly increased, and they are become the 
executive power of the realm. A bri- 
gade of them is stationed in every de- 
partment. The brigadier, and other 
officers, remain in the town of the pre- 
fecture, and with them a body of from 
ten to twenty men; the rest are posted 



STATE OF FRANCE. 257 

in the towns and villages of the de- 
partment, according to its population. 
They ought all to be furnished with 
good horses, though it happens that 
there are a few footmen in most of the 
brigades. The most important service 
which they render to the state, is in 
what relates to the conscription, and 
the arrest of deserters and robbers. 
They also attend to keep the peace at 
all punishments and executions. It is 
their duty, in connexion with the 
civil police, (for we may consider them 
in the light of a military police,)* 'to 
know every body that resides, or that 
is seen for any length of time, within 
the boundaries marked out for their 
inspection ; and they are authorized to 
demand passports of every one they 
meet, and to take those into custody 
concerning whom any suspicion may 
arise. They are expected to look fre^ 
quently, and especially in the even** 
s 



258 ACCOUNT OF THE 

ings, into the public houses, in order 
that all passengers may be examined. 
Besides which, the publicans are com- 
pelled to make out, every evening, a 
list of the names, occupations, and 
places of abode of those who lodge in 
their houses, which they deliver at the 
mayor's office the following morning. 

The gendarmes are ready to give 
assistance, when called upon, to quell 
disturbances and prevent mischief, 
where any is suspected to be intended. 
They have a regular communication, 
with each other, and certain days are 
appointed for visiting the neighbour- 
ing brigades, when all the prisoners are 
forwarded in whatever direction they 
are to be sent. The unfortunate Eng- 
lish have consequently fallen into their 
hands. In some instances our coun- 
trymen have been ill used by them ; 
but it must be confessed, that in gene- 
ral they have met with humane and 



STATE OF FRANCE. S59 

liberal treatment. When the gen- 
darmes have had to do with such as 
could pay, it was their interest to be- 
have well; for the liberality of the 
English is highly spoken of in France ; 
and in such cases as these, it may be 
presumed that liberality would not be re- 
strained. If they were sent forward 
from brigade to brigade, the gendarme 
received nothing from his prisoner, 
having him under his care only a few 
hours, and then lodging him in the 
next prison- But the English have, 
in general, been indulged in taking 
one of them from the place where they 
were arrested, to the town where they 
were to be confined, and, in these cases, 
as it was an extra service, they were 
expected to pay, for a horseman six 
livres a day, and for a footman fouiy 
reckoning also the days of his return. 
These days are calculated by marches, 
which do not exceed fifteen miles for a 
s 2 



260 ACCOUNT OF THE 

footman; so that the journey from 
Mons to Verdun, being reckoned at 
nine days, and as many to return, 
though the whole may be performed 
in ten, the author was required to pay 
three louis for the indulgence of having 
one of these for a companion, who 
was an intelligent man, and from 
whom he derived some of the informa- 
tion winch is now communicated to 
the public. 

The government is very scrupulous 
in the choice of these men. Most of 
them have served in the army, and 
distinguished themselves by their bra- 
very and good behaviour, or else they 
belong to good families; and no man 
without the best of characters can ob- 
tain the rank of gendarme. Their 
discipline is strict, and embraces even: 
their domestic economy. They have 
barracks appropriated to them in every 
department, and no one is allowed .to 



.STATE OF FRANCE. Q&l 

.marry till the officer has received a 
good character of the intended bridej 
and given his approbation of the match 
in writing. A party of these is attach- 
ed to every army, where they are also 
the executors of the law. The arm}?* 
of England, under general Sou.lt, had 
a large party of them accompanying it, 
who were to have landed with the first 
detachment, and undertaken the grate- 
ful task of establishing liberty and good 
order in society amongst us. They 
have not yet rendered us this piece of 
service ; and as the people at large, in; 
their own country, have long ridiculed- 
the idea of the descent, though at one 
time they believed it to be seriously 
intended, we also may flatter ourselves 
in the hope, that our present good 
order will not be improved by theirs 
interference, nor the security of our 
property depend upon their exertions. 
j In the outset of the revolution, and 



$6$ ACCOUNT OF THE 

agreeably to its original design, the 
police of the republic was under civil 
officers, who form a part of every mu- 
nicipal body ; and it is no wonder that 
the constituted authorities should de- 
sire to execute the laws by the hands 
of their own servants, Such a body 
of men as the gendarmes might be 
useful assistants, but officious direc- 
tors. But since the government is 
changed from a republican to a military 
form, it may be presumed that the 
military has encroached upon the civil 
power, and left it no more than the 
shadow of authority, wherever it has 
been able to introduce its own. This 
is, indeed, the fact, and the conse- 
quence has been a high degree of jea- 
lousy and frequent misunderstandings 
between the generals and the magis- 
trates, the former of whom are regarded 
with no friendly eye by the people. 
But as the power is in their hands, and 



STATE OF FRANCE. 263 

their chief is the interpreter as well as 
the fabricator of the laws, there is 
little question o£ what is the opinion 
of the civil magistrate. It was this 
circumstance that gave occasion to 
the author's escape. The justice of 
peace had directed him to be con- 
ducted, with his papers sealed up, by 
a gendarme, as expeditiously as possi- 
ble, to the prefet of the department in 
which he had resided. The gendarme 
was furious when the sealed papers were 
presented to him, with the instruc- 
tions of the justice. " How did the 
justice dare," said he, * 4 to seal up the 
papers of an English prisoner of war ? 
he knew what to do with an English- 
man without the directions of the civil 
power." And he refused, under such 
circumstances, to take charge of the 
prisoner* 



gfri 'ACCOUNT OF THE 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Echaufeurs, or Warmers. 

AN occurrence has lately taken place 
in Flanders, which is not o-enerallv 
known in England, and may he men- 
tioned to show the disposition of the 
present government of France. Aw 
alarm of personal danger has heen 
raised amongst them, hy the arrest of 
a considerable number of persons, upon 
a pretext that is not satisfactory to the 
public. A company of men, who are 
known by the name of echaufeurs^ 
or warmers, have infested the, low 
countries for some time past. The, 
sons of some good families are sup- 
posed to be connected with them, who^ 
being dissipated and extravagant, are 
not supplied by their parents with the 



staYe of trance. 3.65 

adequate means of indulgence, and have 
allied themselves to characters noto- 
riously bad, in order to make depre- 
dations on the property of others. 
It is said, that they are very nume- 
rous • that they are dispersed in differ- 
ent directions, keep up a regular 
correspondence, and are united as in a 
common cause. Their custom has 
been, to beset a house in the coun- 
try, sometimes in large bodies ; and 
having gained admittance, to hold 
the feet of the master, mistress, or 
other principal person they found, 
close to the fire, or over it in the 
flame, in order to make them declare 
in what place their most valuable pro- 
perty was concealed ; and when they 
had taken it, -they decamped. These 
circumstances have actually taken place 
in the neighbourhood of Brussels ; and 
some persons have suffered long and 
severe fits of illness, both from the 



■&66 ACCPUNT ,0F TJiE 

.fright, and, from the wpunds -. thej 
have received. . It is now nearly 
two years since the gendarmerie be-: 
gan to take these people up ; and it 
has been pretended, that the ramifi- 
cations of this evil spread so wide, 
that the most perfect secrecy was 
necessary, in order to insure the arrest 
of the remainder of them ; of course, 
none have vet been brought to their 
trial. Many respectable housekeep- 
ers, of good character, have been 
arrested and detained in prison; some 
of them of extensive property, who 
cannot be supposed to be connected 
with this infamous band. In the 
month of August it was currently re- 
ported, that the persons arrested 
aaiounted to four hundred, ail of 
whom remained withput evidence, or 
proof of guilt, within the walls of : 
iheir prison, tit must be presumed, 
that some other than that of the 



STATE OF TRANCE, %&7 

cchaiifage, is the cause of such nu- 
merous arrests; and it threw for a 
time a clamp on the minds of the peo- 
ple of the low country, to whom this 
affair seems to have been confined. A 
proof, amongst many others, that the 
government of France gives an ac- 
count of its conduct only when it 
pleases, and in the manner which is 
most agreeable to itself. 



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